Buddhist monk in Laos

By a long series of coincidences, I found myself with Nick, a friendly Aussie girl, asking a monk in the Laotian monastery of Nakhoun Noi near Vientiane if we could stay there to learn about meditation. We were brought to Ajhan Phan, who welcomed us warmly then sent a monk to bring Nick to the nunery and agreed to be my teacher. He made a deep impression on me: he was smiling and lighthearted yet firm and authoritative. When we arrived he gave the impression he was waiting for us.

Ajhan Phan told me four meditation techniques:

• Sitting meditation: concentrate on the breathing and counting it ( inhale: one, exhale: two,… until hundred then start again).
• Walking meditation: concentrate on each step (“step right”, “step left”,…).
• Sleeping meditation: same posture as the lying buddha and stay aware without falling asleep ( when you fall asleep you wake up instantly due to the position).
• And some kind of strange yoga exercise.

Then he told me to follow this programme for one week:

• 3am: wake up
• 7am: breakfast alone in my room
• 11am: lunch alone in my room
• 5pm: shower
• 9.30pm: go to sleep

“At all other times practice the four meditation techniques, one hour each in the order you like. When you have a problem come and see me, but talk to nobody else. Meditation is very easy if you have the will.”, Ajhan Phan added. Surprisingly, with his huge smile he did make it sound really easy. It was only later that I realised how difficult it actually was!

I managed to (very approximately I confess) follow these instructions for four days, but unfortunately Ajhan Phan had to leave unexpectantly after the second day. Without a teacher, I decided that four days would be (more than) enough.

These four days have been mentally challenging. But it made me understand some basic things about meditation. Your thoughts can have a profound impact on your mood and character. Having control over them is therefore important. For example, I’m sure you, like me, must have had some sort of “obsession” or habit that you know is ridiculous but that you just can’t get out of your head. By learning how to let some thoughts go and vanish just as they arrived, you can avoid these successions of thoughts you don’t like. Advanced meditators are capable of experiencing the world without added mental constructions. Just try to look around you for 5 minutes without commenting or judging the things you see!

I’m happy to have done this retreat, it was a great experience. That being said you can rest assured: I won’t turn into a buddhist monk either!

For more information on this, I remember enjoying the talk given by the French monk Matthieu Ricard at Google.

Buddhist monks at Bayon temple in Angkor

My first stop in Cambodia was Siem Reap, the gateway to the legendary Angkor temples. The majesty of Angkor Wat, the wilderness of Phrat Thom, and perhaps above all the mysterious beauty of Bayon literally blew me away. I was expecting huge ruins of temples in the jungle, but never thought I would discover such finely carved and well preserved frescos sometimes hundreds of meters long. The numerous temples are architectural wonders. Unfortunately, many people came to realize it, and with tourism growing more than 30% annually for the last ten years, it’s hard to find a bit of peace and quiet while admiring the temples. But it’s still possible luckily, so get there quickly!

Victims of the Khmer Rouges at the S-21 prison

After the wonders of the Angkorian architecture, I moved on to the capital, Phnom Penh, where I was confronted with a more recent, less glorious past of the country. From 1975 to 1979 the country was ruled by an extreme communist regime, the Khmer Rouges, that claimed two million lives in that short time span. Phnom Penh was completely emptied of its inhabitants in 48 hours, forcing its population back to the countryside to live a rural life and exterminating all its educated people. The visits of the S-21 prison and of the killing fields was intense and the worst possible reminder of where some extreme ideologies can lead.

But I ended up staying ten days in the capital for other reasons. Cambodian people are simply adorable. Lots of them love to learn English making it easier to communicate with the locals than in Thailand or Indonesia. The couple owning my guesthouse, the Blue Dog Guesthouse, even became good friends, I had an incredible time in the local cafes and karaokes. To help them I took some time to put their guesthouse on some websites and they have been extremely grateful!

My last stop was Kratie, where I went to see the Irawaddy dolphins in the Mekong river. Only 60 dolphins are left in the region and they are under severe threat of extinction.

Friendly young Cambodian monks close to Kratie

I also took the opportunity to visit the rural villages close to Kratie, just a little bit off the beaten track, but enough to meet plenty of curious and friendly locals! This ended the real rollercoaster of emotions that I experienced in Cambodia, with displays of both the best and worst sides of human nature.

Watch all my pictures from Cambodia in the gallery

But unfortunately, travelling also has its downsides, and one of them is the negative impact it generates on the environment. As this is a concern for me, I now have a couple of rules I apply that could help you too.

Choose your transport wisely

By far the biggest carbon emmissions during your travels will come from your transport, so it is important to choose your means of transport responsibly.

Airplanes are responsible for 3% of global carbon emissions. A US return flight from coast to coast will emit as much CO2 emissions as the average frenchman in one year. And these emissions are the worst because they are at emitted at high altitude, going straight to the athmosphere. My first tip is to avoid planes as much as you can.

Now of course if you don’t have much time and plan to visit a far-away country, planes are difficult to avoid. But still, instead of taking several internal flights to try to see the whole country in two weeks, why not consider exploring only one part much more intensively and avoiding all the planes? The “highlights” mentioned in the guidebooks will only rarely be your own personal highlights. Trying to see them all at all costs is usually not a such good idea. You will be surrounded by tourists most of your time, harrassed by touts, and at a much higher risk of theft. By travelling overland instead, you will see the authentic local life, see changes occur softly and gradually and understand the country you are visiting much better.

Even for long-term travels, I would recommend not taking too many planes. Trying to see America, Europe, Asia and Africa all in one trip like many people do, will likely be too much. Adjusting to a different culture takes time, and starting from zero all over again is hard and can be tiring.

Instead of flying, I recommend taking the train when possible, or a boat or bus. For shorter distances, also consider bicycles if some are available for rent. If you try it first with the environment in mind, you will continue to do it for your own enjoyment, I guarantee!

Minimise the amount of plastic you use

Have you ever heard about a new “continent of waste” forming in the pacific ocean? It is made out of billions of small plastic particles that accumulate at this place because of a combination of currents. It is growing rapidly and is already twice the size of of the continental united states! Watch the youtube video for more information. One of the major  waste problem we face today is due to plastic. Did you know that less than  3% of the plastic we use is recycled worldwide (according to a Helmut Kaiser Consultancy report, 2006)? And it takes about 500-1000 years for plastic to biodegrade, which means that we won’t get rid of that problem any time soon, even if we were to stop using it now.

In developing countries, the chances that they will recycle or dispose plastic responsibly are very low. So it is important to use it scarcely. I always refuse plastic bags and also explain briefly that I do so because of pollution.  In South East Asia for example, they will put the single can of coke you just bought in a plastic bag!

Another big problem are the plastic bottles, and it is harder to deal with that one in countries with no drinking water on the tap. Two options though: when you can, you can boil your water (25 minutes and you’re safe!) and reuse your bottle, or filter your water.

Show the good example

Travelling is a great way to meet many people and interact with the locals. I use this opportunity to show the good example and be environmental friendly!

These are the few things I have learned on this journey, but I’d be curious to hear from you, do you have other tips or ideas to travel ecologically?

The road travelled so far

Here’s a little update on the itinerary I followed these last weeks. After my journey on the cargo ship I arrived in Singapore on the 28th of November. Singapore didn’t really manage to conquer my heart. I found the city to be very formatted to western standards and after my stay in Australia, I was impatient to discover a more authentic side of Asia. So I stayed only two days, just enough time to meet Ruth, Inna and Jean, three good friends from Google in Dublin who were in Singapore then. I also had the opportunity to meet Carlina, a very talented Canadian photographer, who showed me some great sights in the city. She also recommended me warmly not to miss Indonesia, and I’m very grateful she did!

From Singapore, I took a four hour bus to Melaka, a pleasant colonial city in Malaysia. I could sense that the athmosphere became different. I had my first meal of the trip on the streets, the traffic became more chaotic,… But this was only the start of a more radical change.

After a three hour ferry from Melaka to Dumai I arrived in Sumatra, Indonesia. Coincidently, I met a group of people who were on the the Oz Bus, the famous bus going overland from London to Sydney in three months. Honnestly these people looked exhausted and didn’t seem to be enjoying themselves much. “We spend most of our time in buses”, a middle aged Englishman from the group told me. Of course, I’m not surprised: three months is really too short for such a journey, and in an organised tour you lack the freedom that is one of the most enjoyable things in a long term travel.

When I arrived in Dumai, I was ‘welcomed’ by a hord of touts who were particularly difficult to dismiss. In Indonesia the traffic now was a total chaos, but luckily the smiles on people’s faces were growing too. Indonesia is really the first country on the trip were locals have been extremely friendly. Wherever I was, it never lasted long to have a local coming curiously: “Where are you from?”, and then starting a conversation. Several times I was stopped on the streets and asked permission to be photographed.

The sunset on Lake Maninjau seen from my hut.

The next few days, I relaxed at Lake Maninjau, in a volcano crater. This area was hit in September by a major earthquake, and the destruction caused to the houses was heart-gripping to witness.

From the nearby town of Padang, devastated by the earthquake, I took a ferry to Siberut Island for my trekking that I discussed previously. So far, it is without a doubt the highlight of my trip . Interestingly, even though Siberut was shaken just as badly as Padang, there have been no casualties on the island, and I didn’t witness any damage there. The Mentawai people told me it’s because they know how to build earthquake resistant huts, made only of wood and with foundations going deep in the ground. The second reason according to them is that the jungle, with the deep roots of the trees, absorbs the shock very effectively, unlike the area of Padang, where the jungle was burnt long ago by the locals. A pity that a knowledge that took millennia to develop is ignored today.

From then on, I went a little faster and did the exact opposite route to Melaka, then took a bus and spent a day in Kuala Lumpur, another modern town, not much different from Singapore even though I found it to be a little more friendly. To arrive on time to meet my Belgian friend Idesbald in Bangkok for Christmas and New year, I had to take a bus to Hat Yai in Thailand, and then straight away another bus to Bangkok, making it an exhausting 22 hour journey! I certainly don’t recommend doing this by bus, but in my case all trains were full due to the holidays.

I celebrated Christmas in Koh Samet, an Island close to Bangkok, and then relaxed in the city and arranged my visas for China and Vietnam. I would have liked to spend more time in Thailand, but the government has decided to only give 15 days visas to overland travellers, forcing me to shorten my stay and to reach Cambodia earlier than planned. It’s a pity!

Young boy in front of Angkor Wat

Intense stare of a Mentawai shaman

I hesitated much, and finally decided it was madness because of the terrible climate there, the dangerous ferry and it was said to be malaria infested. But I couldn’t get the idea out of my mind and when I approached the area, I decided to contact a guide and discuss it with him. He didn’t really convince me: “Maybe a little risky now, it would be better to come back in August”. But after long discussions, I became so curious that I just decided to go for it!

I was totally unprepared with no trekking shoes, no water purifying pills and so on. And I discovered that it is impossible in Indonesia to find trekking shoes with sizes larger than 43! I finally ended up with only plastic wellington boots bought at 3.50 euros at the local market. Needless to say, I was a little nervous in the 10 hours, rocky wooden ferry that took me to Siberut Island the day after! But as soon as I started the trek, I was very thankful not to have bought trekking shoes. The mud was often approaching knee level and I had to cross countless streams and rivers.

After a 10 hour ferry journey from Padang to Siberut island, followed by 5 hours of traditional wooden boat up the river, another hour trekking to a village where I stayed overnight and finally five hours of up and down trekking through the jungle I reached the remote settlement of Atabai.

Amatopele, the owner of the first house I stayed at.

I didn’t really know what to expect. But straight away found out that this would be an amazing adventure. The whole family was dressed in traditional clothes (loincloth for men, and skirt and topless for women). The owner was away to heal some people in another village. When he arrived the next day with two other shamans, I couldn’t believe my eyes! He welcomed me warmly saying I could stay for as long as I wanted to learn about the culture. After that, he started to sing a traditional song “Baaacho, baaacho kerre, baaacho baacho kerre” to the delight of his six giggling children. He was getting so much into it that he stood up and started a dance with eagle like movements while singing. No, this wasn’t going to be the usual trekking.

The Mentawai culture is much more complex than I initially imagined. I was particularly impressed by their sustainable use of the jungle. What first appears as a virgin rainforest is actually a huge garden used by the Mentawais to plant all kinds of trees: the Sago tree from which they get the major part of their diet for them and their chickens and pigs, but also coconut trees, banana trees and dozens of delicious tropical fruit trees. They understood long ago that cutting the forest to have single crop plantations wasn’t sustainable and instead they spread their own trees within the jungle to keep the soil fertile.

Turu Manai, the charismatic owner of the second house I stayed at.

During the trek, I stayed in traditional huts of five different families and learned to get to know them. This led to some fantastic moments and discussions! The people were very welcoming and always proposed to share their meals with me. This is really nice when they eat some good chicken, but a lot less when they prepare to eat a huge plate of worms and look at you curiously to see if you enjoy this delicacy as much as they do…

The trek wasn’t easy either. The tracks are seriously muddy and slippery, the food is often very bland and I was constantly bitten by mosquitoes which seemed to love my mosquito repellent! My clothes were also in a constant humid state due to the very wet climate on the island. But the toughest of all for me was to get some sleep! Mentawais love to talk very late in the night right next to where you sleep and they wake up as soon as the sun rises being just as noisy again and continuing their conversations. Add to that the sounds of chickens and pigs living under the house and the mosquito bites and you get a good idea of my nights there.

Mentawai girl

But this was a reasonable price to pay considering the friendliness of the people, the beauty of the jungle and the adorable Mentawai children!

Some practical tips if you plan to trek to the Mentawai:

• Take Wellington (rubber) boots, with all the mud and with so many river crossings they will be much more convenient.
• You don’t need purifying tablets. Mentawai people will boil the water for 25 minutes before drinking it. In 12 days I haven’t been sick once while drinking it.
• Bring mosquito repellent! It is hard to find in Padang.
• You might want to have your own mattress, I didn’t have one and had to sleep on the ground the whole time (you get used to it though).
• Bring some gifts, but avoid plastic at all costs. Small pearls to make their jewels ( see my pictures) can be bought at the market in Padang, tobacco and cigarettes are also essential ( they all smoke anyways so you’re not influencing them don’t worry!).
• Book a cabin on the ferry.
• Learn some Mentawai in advance, it’s a very easy language and nobody there speaks English or Indonesian.

Watch all my pictures from the trek in the photo gallery.

And indeed, it didn’t look at all like a tourist area once I arrived. The place was covered with containers and huge cranes were loading them on a ship. The security person looked at me: “oh you must be the passenger!”. After a signature he brought me to the ship. It was unbelievably huge! I was greeted by a worker on the ship who brought me onboard. He introduced me to a Russian crew member, Aleksander, who showed me the way to my cabin. It was much better than I expected: it had an ensuite bathroom, a tv and dvd player, a couch and a nice double bed. Still I could tell that this was certainly not made for passengers, the atmosphere and decoration on board is rather that of a big factory.

Our ship to Singapore, the MSC Basel

My vessel, the MSC Basel, was a monster: 51 000 tons, 216 meters long and 32 meters wide (known as Panamax, the maximum width allowed through the Panama Canal). It can carry up to 2700 containers.

Everyday, breakfast is served at 7.30, lunch at 11.30 and dinner at 17.30. On sundays and Tuesdays, ice-cream is served as dessert and cake at three o’clock. This routine reminded me a little of my time at the boarding school. I had to eat in the Mess room, the canteen for the captain and the officers and was assigned a fixed seat. There were no native English-speaking people on board. The captain was german, and the other officers were German, Russian and Estonian. There was also Mr. Singh, a trainee Nautical Officer from India.

The Mess Room

During my first dinner, I met most of them and also the other passenger, Ulrich a friendly German in his fifties. His English wasn’t the best but we still managed to communicate with a mix of simple words and gestures. A good training for my upcoming travels in Asia I suppose!

The crew consisted of 25 men, the rest of the crew (non-officers) were all from the Kiribati Islands in the Pacific, and ate in a separate room. It’s interesting to note that these brave men were on twelve months contracts, meaning they are on the boat for twelve months, working eight hours a day, seven days a week. As a comparison, the captain and Chief Engineer from Germany are on permament contracts and get 13 days of holidays for every month on the ship. The Russians were mostly on 4 months contracts.

The time I had on the boat is probably the most relaxing time in my life. There is not much to do or to worry about, except arriving on time for the meals… The ship goes very slowly, at a speed of 16 nods, which is approximately 30km/h. This can be challenging at times, but I ended up enjoying it a lot. The constant sound of the engine and the slight movement of the waves are very relaxing and guarantee you very giid sleep at night. I slept like never before!

My cabin

When I wasn’t reading, eating or sleeping, I spent most of my time around the ’swimming pool’ often in the company of Ulrich. Other things I enjoyed were to just watch the view from the front of the ship were the vibrations of the engine were absent and the only sound were the waves crashing against the boat. The crew were also really friendly and explained me the life on the sea at lenght. As a passenger you are allowed everywhere on the ship, so I visited every corner of it!

During my stay I was able to manoeuvre the ship myself, I visited the engine room, had countless interesting discussions, spotted dolphins, active volcanoes and deserted islands with long white sand beaches. I waved back at the enthusiastic indonesians passing by on small fishing boats, cleaned the swimming pool entirely (ok well yes I was a bit bored then…), and participated in a fire drill exercise. During certain legs we had to lock all doors of the ships at night against pirates, and there was a person crew watching for them all night with a huge torch lamp. In more secure areas an unforgetable experience was swimming at night in the swimming pool under the stars in the middle of the ocean.

Navigating the ship

Ecologically these ships are a bit of a disaster though. The MSC basel requires 45 to 60 metric tons of heavy fuel a day to run! And Im’ told this is actually an eco-friendly vessel, the more recent and faster ships need up to 300 tons a day. The captain also acknowledged that they were one of the worst sources of pollution.

The Chief Officer briefing the crew

The crew’s lack of respect for the marine environment also surprised me. They basically throw everything overboard except plastic. So every time they finish a bottle of beer or a can of soft drink: they throw it in the sea. I couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t keep them to recycle them. The Chief officer explained it: “It’s too expensive, at the harbour they charge us for our waste so we prefer to get rid of it before that”. “Do you also have to pay to for the recyclable waste in Europe”, I asked. “No, not in Europe, it’s included in the harbour tax”. “And do you still throw everything overboard there or not?” I asked with a glimpse of hope. “Hum… yes we still do”, he admitted. I wasn’t surprised but asked him to urge the crew not to do so the next time he sails in European waters, let’s hope he listened!

That being said, I had a great time and would encourage anybody to try the experience. It’s a great opportunity to witness the life on board such a vessel! You really feel like part of the crew. I was called “Mister de Halleux”, and had to call all the officers by their titles! “Chief officer, could you pass me the salt?” A big difference as well after the relaxed attitude of the Australians.

Now I’m finally in Singapore and am planning to head very soon to Indonesia for some more adventures!

Check the photo gallery for more pictures!

So after much hesitation, I decided to go all the way up to the Whitsunday Islands and head back to Brisbane afterwards. When booking at the travel agency, I was proposed a cheap flight to the Whitsundays. “Well that’s great but what about the bus?”, I asked. “The bus?! Well it’s going to be 18 hours for the one-way journey and it will 3 times the price”. Ouch, sticking to my rule is definitely not easy… “I’ll take he bus then thanks.” The travel agent couldn’t believe it!

Sailing in the Whitsunday Islands

The bus wasn’t as bad as I feared it luckily and the journey went rather fast. One day later I was boarding on the S.V. Whitehaven in the port of Airlie Beach. I was off for a two days, two nights trip in these magnificent Islands. We stopped several times for some snorkeling and to visit the amazing white sand beach of Whitehaven. At night the skipper gave us a lesson on stars and showed us the different constellations and galaxies. I love the stars in the Southern hemisphere and had missed them a lot since the 6 months I spent in South Africa.

After my boat trip I had planned to stay a couple of days in Airlie beach, the city from which most boats leave. But I really didn’t enjoy the atmosphere there: all hostels are noisy and dirty with huge bars that look a lot like (very) cheap English clubs. To be honnest this is not really an exception and most very touristic cities on the East coast look like that. Probably the biggest plague I found when visiting Australia. So I decided to leave quickly and to head to 1770, halfway between Airlie Beach and Brisbane.

Riding a chopper around the town of 1770

1770 has a great vibe, the locals are really friendly and the hostels are the best I’ve experienced on the East Coast. I had a great time in my hostel, called COol Bananas. I ended up staying there for 5 nights! During that time I mainly relaxed, went to the beach, cruised around the town on a chopper to find kangaroos and wallabies, and finally learnt to surf! I absolutely loved it and it made it harder to leave Australia as I would have been glad to stay longer to become a bit better at it. However it wasn’t as though as I thought, I already managed to stand up several times and catch some good waves during the first lesson! I might make a little detour to Indonesia to practice some more!

I would have been stuck in Airlie Beach if I had booked flights and I would not have been able to discover 1770! So I’m very happy to have stuck to my rule so far! But the biggest challenge is still ahead of me: my 13 days on the cargo ship are approaching fast!

Sydney Harbour

I’ve been having a really good time in Sydney and stayed there for nearly three weeks before I eventually decided to start my journey towards Europe. Sydney is a cool city nested in an impressive natural location with its famous harbour. It does really feel like a big city with its wide busy streets and tall skyscrapers but I have found people to be more relaxed than in most European cities, or at least they appear to be so! It is quite polluted though and at the end I was getting a little annoyed by all the cars everywhere. It very much ressembles american cities with huge streets and urban design that is totally optimised for cars and not at all for pedestrians.

Surfer in Byron Bay

So after three weeks I had seen most of the major attractions and it was certainly time to move on! My first stop on the East coast was Byron Bay, where I enjoyed the beach and the relaxed atmosphere in the town. The town used to be full of hippies in the 80s and a few are still around today.

Our 4x4 on the beach

The first real highlight of my trip was still ahead of me so I quickly moved on further north towards Fraser Island. This is the biggest sand island in the world. To explore it I signed up for a self drive safari with ten other people in a big Toyota 4×4. The other people turned out to be very cool and we had a good time camping for three days on the island.

Fraser is home to a lot of dingos (Austalian wild dogs) too, and we saw a couple on the way. Dingos are said to have become overly agressive these last years towards tourists. Feeding them made their fear of humans vanish, causing them to attack when they are too hungry. Feeding them today is strictly prohibited. Interestingly the local aboriginals that I met there had a different opinion: it is because they can’t feed them that the dingos now sometimes attack. Their elders have always left food remains for the dingos in the past and it is because that food source dissapeared that they became aggressive. In any case the ones I saw didn’t look aggressive at all!

So far I’ve been having a great time traveling and have met loads of interesting and surprising people: a producer of the UK Big Brother show, French cancer researchers, the gardener of an English lord traveling the world, countless other people having left their jobs to travel for a while and many more improbable characters…

My next stop before returning to Brisbane to catch my cargo ship will be the Whitsunday Islands where I’m going for a three days eco sailing cruise. I can’t wait!

Time went by so quickly! I just arrived in Australia and am already starting my journey. It’s a strange feeling to have what always seemed to be like a distant dream finally become reality!

Leaving wasn’t easy though. I spent the past three years of my life in Dublin and have left several very good friends behind there and of course in Belgium. I will miss you all!

But of course I’m also very excited about my trip. During the journey, my goal will be to focus on environmental problems through my photography. I’ll try to photograph changes to the environment caused by human activity in the countries I’ll visit. However I will also do my best to meet people involved in positive initiatives, and will hopefully come back full of optimism and ideas on how to change things for the better. If you have any contacts of such people who are on my way, please let me know!

As a first illustration here is my first picture that I took in Wollongong, where I’m starting the trip. It’s the most southern point that I’ll see but luckily going north also means that the climate will get warmer because it’s pretty chilly here (15 degrees Celsius)!

Finally I plan to stick to my initial rule of not flying. Things turned out not to be as simple as they looked on the map. Indonesia and East Timor indeed look so close to Australia, but in reality crossing by boat is much harder than I expected! As I wrote in my previous post, there are only two options to do so. In the meantime I found out that November and December are right in the hurricane season and that no sailboats cross at that moment. This left me with one single option: the cargo ship. I managed to find a cabin on a German freighter and will board on the 15th of November in Brisbane for a 13 day trip to Singapore. It promises to be a very interesting experience!

The most difficult leg of the journey from Australia to Europe to accomplish overland is to cross from Australia to Asia without taking a plane. During my preparation of the trip, I read so many different opinions on this that I didn’t know what to believe! Here is what I found out:

Is it possible to cross without taking a plane? The short answer is: Yes! You have two options:

1. Find a spot on a Yacht as a crew member. The only way to do this is to go to Darwin in May or July when most Yachts make the journey North. A great website to find more information is: www.sailindonesia.net. You can also leave a message on the Darwin’s Sailing Club’s message board.
2. The other option is to book a cabin on a cargo ship. The only existing route is from Brisbane to Singapore. A couple of companies organise this like Globoship (email them they speak English), or Strand Voyages. The trip lasts approximately 10 days. It includes food and a private cabin with bathroom but is still quite expensive unfortunately.

These are the two only options that I found and were confirmed by several sources, but if you hear about other possibilities let me know! I wanted to write this blog post simply to prove that if you really want to do it without flying it is possible!