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Amazing Norway, Amazing Views

2011-08-01 00:00:00

Unfortunately the weather proved too cold to hike to Trolltungan – partly because we hadn’t brought the right gear and partly because the snow hadn’t melted on the high altitude path as we had hoped. So instead we headed south on some magnificent roads, passing more splendid waterfalls and beautiful mountain views than we could count – after a long detour thanks to the crappy lonely planet maps, we arrived at Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock) visitor center, near Lysefjord. It would seem most the tourists in Norway had found their way here as well, on this perfect sunny day, but as we had taken a while coming and it had gotten afternoon already, most seemed to be heading down from the trail.

The first part of the path was really crowded and we hurried past many not so fit people, simply because it wasn’t that fun to walk in the crowds. Half way through we got to the hardest part of the trail; a ravine with big rocks that one must climb – it was somewhat fun to watch all the cruise ship tourists descending, huffing and puffing their way. The trail should take around 3 hours (we did it in 2h15m) to complete and is a mix of easy walking and some harder parts, with a few pretty steep parts. Everyone should be able to manage, if they stick to their own pace. As we got longer into the trail, the amount of people started to diminish and soon the crowds had thinned out to a more enjoyable number. The last third of the trail was very beautiful, crossing some granite plains with incredible vistas.

Finally we rounded a corner and Preikestolen unfolded itself before us; jutting out into the void it looks amazingly precarious. A fair amount of people were enjoying the views, and they were right to do so. From Preikestolen it is a vertical drop of several hundred meters, directly into Lysefjord, with the Lysefjord stretching far inland to one side, and all the way to the North Sea to the other. As with many natural sights in Norway there are no fences to stop you from doing stupid things - a really nice change to many other sights around the world. Creeping close to the edge, I couldn’t help but feeling vertigo and peering directly out over the edge was a thrilling experience. One old man, didn’t suffer from the same freights as others, as he gingerly sad right on the edge, with legs dangling in thin air and a big smile on his face.

Walking up further, one could get a great view down on Preikestolen and Lysefjorden far below. Boats were sailing on the blue waters, illuminated by the golden evening light – what a sight!

Around 6 o’clock most people had returned down and because of the long days, the sun was still high in the sky, so peace descended upon the magical place. Once again we enjoyed every bit of the atmosphere, sitting close to the edge in the warm summer evening and seeing the sun slowly set on the return hike. We took in every moment and raveled in the beauty and serenity of it all.

This was out last stop on our mini trip to Norway, but we could definitely have spent lots and lots of more time in this amazing country. We can’t recommend a trip to the western fjords of Norway more; and I believe we can say only one thing: Go now!

A City Steeped in History

2011-08-01 00:00:00

I like taking sleeper trains, it is a form of travelling that still has a bit of a romantic air about it. Hua Lompong station in Bangkok is large and busy with countless people passing through on their way to all corners of Thailand. Railway staff is also very helpful towards sweaty, flustered farangs with way too much luggage, and we were quickly guided towards platform 4 where we were to catch a train to Hat Yai in southern Thailand. All tickets on the train directly to Penang were sold out, so therefore we had opted for this train as it would get us as close to the Malaysian border as possible.

The train was chugging its way down through Thailand, we passed by little homes built right by the tracks, if we had put our hand out the window we could have touched the rusting tin roofs and the laundry hung out to dry. As the train got further away from Bangkok we entered a part of Thailand where life moves at a much slower pace. We passed an intersection where a dog was standing in the middle and a pickup truck was driving around it. The next morning we had reached the countryside, and everything was so green. Rice paddies, banana palms, papaya trees and suddenly large limestone cliff started jutting up from the ground, it was a bit like driving through a dry Halong Bay.

Penang was everything I had thought it would be. And so far I really like it, I love old shop houses and I’ve been photographing facades, doors, signs - you name it - like a mad woman! Martin seems slightly worried that I’ll be run over by a car or motorbike on the pretty heavily trafficked streets here, but I kinda have to walk in the middle of the road to properly photograph the lovely old houses and temples :) We live an old, heritage house – in bright green and have a view right out to an old cemetery, I love it, it has so much character! And who cares if the toilet only flushes every other time, right?
The streets are filled with gorgeous, crumbling old shop houses, I saw hundreds of buildings I wanted to buy and restore back to the former glory, it was great walking around gazing in through open doorways and imagining what it would be like to run a quaint little boutique hotel where the patio would be filled with sweet smelling flowers and each room would have a balcony where you could stand and look down on the busy street below.

Penang was also hot and humid, way too hot and humid and we decided to head to the beach for a day. We jumped on a bus to Penang National Park where we embarked on a 1 hour 20 minute hike through the rainforest to reach the beach. Talk about it being hot and humid!! It was unbelievable humid in the jungle, it was so bad that I ended up taking off my t-shirt and just walking in my bikini top. Anybody who really knows me knows how I dislike tourists who wear beachwear while not on the beach, but there you go. I will have to take back all my bitter talk about inappropriate tourists because sometimes you just don’t have a choice…

The beach was lovely and it was practically deserted, we swam and lounged on the warm sand all day. A few hours in we realized Martin’s t-shirt had vanished. It had been laid out on a fallen palm tree to dry and suddenly it was gone. There were only 3 other tourists on the beach plus some Malaysian school kids on a fieldtrip, but really would anybody want to steal a sweaty, old t-shirt? We of course got the national park beach guard involved in this mysterious disappearance of the 100 baht t-shirt, I searched the beach together with the guard while Martin lay on his beach towel contemplating how he was gonna survive the heavily air-conditioned bus ride back to our hotel without a t-shirt, not to talk about the disapproving stares he no doubt would have collected by the Muslim locals. The guard and I returned from our search empty handed, just as all was starting to look really grim the guard offered up a spare shirt he had in his guard house – what a sweetheart! Even though it was way too big and bright yellow Martin accepted it with open arms :)

BKK

2011-07-31 00:00:00

After a long flight arriving at Bangkok in the very early hours of the morning was a blessing. As soon as we stepped out of the air-conditioned airport, the heat and humidity clang to us as it just do in Bangkok – one of the world’s hottest cities. It wasn’t the first time we had experienced this sweltering and clingy heat, but you never expect it to be that bad. With lots of luggage we were even worse off – even the cabdriver couldn’t believe his eyes. Two full backpacks, a huge suitcase and a rather large sports bag…yep, it was as outrageous as it sounds.

To our defense, this wasn’t the beginning of one of the usual trips round one or the other part of the world. We were actually kinda moving to Jakarta, as Laerke has gotten an internship with the Danish Embassy there. Though we did have two-three weeks of holiday first, which was to be spent the usual semi-backpacker way. First stop Bangkok, and then a few stops down through the Malay Peninsula. We hated the luggage already!

Got a cap to the hotel, who luckily gave us our room right away, even though we came at four in the morning – no extra charge added. Guess that is what you get when you don’t stay at the cheapest places on Khao San

A little jetlagged, we went out into the urban jungle of Bangkok, scouting out the area and trying to find the BTS station, which should have been close. In reality it wasn’t that close and the heat and oppressive humidity were getting to us… we had walked for 20 minutes or so, when it started dripping. Knowing Southeast Asian downpours, we sought refuge under an overhang and soon enough, that turned out to be a good move.

The sky opened up and a torrential downpour ensued. Tuk tuk drivers also scrambled to relative safety under half roofs as the rain became too furious for them to drive on; no-one seemed to be surprised though – except one farang family sitting in a tuk-tuk, from where the driver had already taken flight. The girls were screaming, while dad, unsuccessfully was trying his best to keep the troops together; what a spectacle! What would have been a flood in Copenhagen was everyday life in Bangkok.

When the sky cleared, we continued through Lumphini park, where the local “wildlife” of monitor lizards, tortoises and birds came as a slight surprise for us. The park, a little too manicured though, is a nice retreat from the traffic heavy streets of Bangkok. And the very proper uniformed park police on pink bicycles gave us a good, if discreet, laugh.

In the following days, we did nothing much else than shopping and eating (ok, and a lot of sweating too). As usual the small warrens of Siam Square were a hit with Laerke, who needed just a few more office appropriate attires. MBK made a nice retreat from the heat and I even bought a pair of nice shoes and a new bag (pretty much similar to the other two that I’ve bought in MBK on other occasions, just a different color). We visited the weekend market as well, but could stand more than a few hours, as it was simply too hot. Thai friends have also tried to tell us, that the weekend market is decidedly not up-market, and therefore not an appropriate place for a nice pair of farangs to buy clothes. It so cheap though, that we just can’t help it.

We met with friends for a night out as well; good Thai food, some beer and drinks was an always winning combo. The beer and drinks where hard to come by though, as it was Buddhist lent, which means contemplation and prayer, again meaning no alcohol to be had in the entire city…by law! No law without exceptions though, the exception of cause being a place that is not really Bangkok – Khao San Road. Here the party was in full swing as always, and with a little luck, we found a little more quite corner and had a great time.

We left for Malaysia on the sleeper train, having crammed the latest purchases into our next to impossibly stuffed bags and suitcase…

A weekend in Sweden

2011-07-06 00:00:00

My family had arranged for a bit of a family gathering at my Uncle’s house in Sweden and we were happy to join in. We decided to add an extra day and go camping in Hallandsåsen and do a bit of walking there. The weather wasn’t the best but it was fun to get the tent out again and we loved walking in the fresh air and camping next to one of the many beautiful lakes.

On the way to my Uncle’s house we passed a sign saying ‘Elg Safari’ and I’ve always wanted to see Moose so we went for it. It turns out it was calf season and there were so many calves in the park – they were so cute :)

Time spent at my uncl’s place was lovely, he has completely fixed up his house and it looks so great. Martin and I got to sleep in the best bedroom with a huge, soft bed, it made for a lovely night’s sleep. We enjoyed spending some time with my family, ate well and went on a daytrip to a lovely old farm and went for a walk. All in all a lovely weekend!

9 days of the Roskilde Vibe

2011-06-30 00:00:00

We drove from Copenhagen towards the Roskilde Music festival in a small and tightly packed car; two Danes (Lærke and I) and two of our Norwegian friends. Tents, sleeping bags, beer and food were crammed into the trunk and passenger seats, while the three girls sat in the back. Getting through the car-queues leading to the festival area was our first encounter with queuing, something we would get annoyingly familiar with. For the girls, it was their first time at the festival - I have been to the Roskilde Music Festival 5 times before, but this time was the first without my normal festival-gang – so it was kindda new for me too.

The last few years the festival got overrun before the official opening, which means that tents starts to be erected by eager participant on the camping areas early in the morning or even during the night before the opening of the gates. This year was to be different; steps had been made to help prevent this, which meant that this year you could book a spot in one of the specially marked camping areas beforehand – this should in theory make it unnecessary to take part in the early pushing and shoving. I didn’t really believe this though, but we didn’t wanna go and take part in the usual overrunning and my fears were unfortunately true. The fences had been overrun 5 hours prior to the official opening, and therefore the festival had decided to open for all shortly after. When we entered the camping areas, 1 hour before official opening hours, we could see that the mass of tents were already almost all encompassing. We made it to the special booking area, where a special entry pass was needed to get in, but this area had also been opened up to early and although it had been promised that there would be enough room for everyone that had booked, it looked bleak – the amount of tents were massive.

We wandered around looking for a spot, and weren’t in the best of spirits – but a small spot in between two major camps could be our salvation. We put up our tents, which barely fit and got one of the two camps to move some tents to give us more room – they had way to much open space, and they agreed to help us out. More of our friends from Norway were to come, but due to lack of space their tents were set up a little from ours; it didn’t matter though, ‘cos our camp now had room for a common area, and a couple of days later we bought a camping pavilion, which provided much needed shade!

Camp life

The weather was great, the sun was shining, blue skies and the summer had finally started; during the 9 days of the festival, it got warmer and warmer, and many water fights broke out between us and our neighbors – in fact it was essential to carry a water gun around with you on the hottest of days, as you could be attacked by anyone…so the need to be able to defend yourself was real.

The waterposts got a bit crowded, but who cared – we praised our fortunes, while we were swimming in the lake or the big pool area, or sunbathed in our camp. When the lake had to close because of bacteria (as it usually has to), the demand for the swimming pool got high – it was actually a newcomer to the festival. Driven by a eco-generator, sun panels, and pedal power the water was cleaned without too much clorine and cold beer were for sale in the bar. To get in, one had to (after queuing of cause) pedal on bicycles that produced power for the area, which was hot in the heat…but the ultimate goal was in range: the cooling pool! When finally in, it was like being in heaven, cold beer, a big pool and even people as naked as god created them ;) Unfortunately most of the completely naked bodies belonged to men…well, at least it was a good laugh when the made acrobatic dives naked from the jumping platform.

The pool

We had brought quite a lot of games with us; and they were put to good use. Mixing it up with lots of beer and alcohol suddenly made trivial games like “ring-throwing” very, very fun. Beer races were good to quell the thirst and Norwegian singing games attracted neighbors from far and wide. We did go visit friends in other camps as well, which as always was so much fun – you are sure to meet all sorts of cool and wired people. In the evenings we ventured to some of the “party” camps and danced the night away, or simply sat talking and drinking somewhere until it got cold, and a warm sleeping bag was needed.

When the concerts finally began on the 5th day, it almost felt as if our camp and tent was our new home. We did get to see a lot of concerts – Muse, Prodigy, Paramore, Kashmir, The Crooked Vultures, Nephew, Prince, Robyn, LCD Soundsystem, Marley and many more less-known bands. Some concerts were great, others good; we enjoyed them all, but as we aren’t the biggest music freaks, it was more the camp life that left a lasting impression.

Good music

After nine days of fun, beer and music the last concert was in full swing, but it was time to head home. The car had been driven home a couple of days prior, and we had to take the public transport. Luckily trains and busses leave directly from the festival to Copenhagen, but I knew that queues would get longer and longer as Prince played his final tunes; we waited maybe 45 minutes, and were lucky to get a seat on the train. Later I was told by colleagues of mine, that people who left later that evening waited until 3 AM or more to get home! Not fun when it’s a normal work day the next morning.

All in all, it was one of the best Roskilde festivals I’ve experienced – thanks to good weather, good music, good fun and must importantly, good company!

A trek through Aurlandsdalen

2011-06-30 00:00:00

From Aurlandsfjorden, a tributary to the great Sognefjord, which is one of the great fjords of Western Norway, the Aurlands Valley stretches inland, following the river Aurlandselvi. It is a dramatic and diverse gorge like landscape formed by glaciers, which are so typical for Western Norway.

Most people do the this part of a greater trekking route from Østerbø in the east to Vassbygdi in the west, taking advantage of the downhill direction, likewise many start in the morning and walks the 7-8 hours trek in one day. We had planned it a little different, leaving from Vassbygdi in the afternoon/evening, spending the night en route and walking the major part the day after. This way we could enjoy the mountains better by sleeping in the wild, have the trek more to ourselves and avoid walking to much downhill (which I find annoying).

Having spent a lot of time driving along the Snow Road (see former blog entry), we set out late in the afternoon. We had planned spending the night a couple of hours in at Sinjarheim, an old farmstead 2-3 hours in from Vassbygdi, where we parked our car, donned our backpacks with tents, sleeping bags and food and set off.

As we sat out the sun was luckily starting to break through the clouds, breaking the last days of grey, featureless clouds. We hadn’t walked for more than 15 minutes, before we were smack in the middle of a breathtaking landscape of waterfalls, ravines and lush forests, with snow specked on the steep slopes.

Walking was pretty easy; a narrow, but pretty good path followed the river, slowly climbing uphill with the river up through the valley. We had to lose our shoes a couple of times, as waterfalls or streams crossed and flooded the path. Once we had to take of our shoes and pants, wear our raincoats and pack our backpacks in their weather protection gear, because a rather large waterfall fell almost directly onto the path – we got quite wet anyway, but as the sun was shining, we quickly dried up!

The path twisted and turned, sometimes ascending rather steeply, but there was no parts that were too problematic. After around two and half hours, we arrived at the small Sinjarheim farm, perched high on the mountain side. Now the farm is unoccupied, but it is used by students of an agricultural school as a summer learning camp, and by trekkers as a convenient stopover. Luckily, we were the only ones there.

I set up camp, raised our tent and started cooking, while Lily was busy taking a lot of photos. We hadn’t brought a lot of water (we didn’t wanna carry it), but the many streams had plenty for the taking. Unfortunately 2011 was declared “Lemming year”, meaning that there is a massive rise in the Lemming population. This leads to mass migration, which in turn leads to many Lemmings drowning when crossing rivers, which again gives a slight risk that the normally so clean mountain creeks may be contaminated. Boling the water, before using it solved the problem though.

Again, the Norwegian summer gave us its best. The sun was setting behind the mountains, but at that point it was around 22:00 and it didn’t get dark before midnight, so we had plenty of time to enjoy the magnificent scenery and quiet evening.

After a good night’s sleep, we set out again late in the morning. Again the path was pretty straight forward, but climbed somewhat more steeply, all the time following the raging river. After a couple of hours or so, we reached a fork were you could choose to follow the river or walk up the mountainside over Bjørnstigen (“Bears ladder”). We choose the ladder. The path up the Bjørnstigen was steep, but again, any reasonably fit person could do it. Arriving at the “summit” we were blessed with another great vantage point and beautiful views – we had lunch overlooking the valley and spent some time enjoying the perfect day, with blue skies and warm sunshine.

Walking on, this time we got to walk downhill for a bit, but luckily not too much. Lily has problems with her knees when walking downhill, so we like walking uphill more ? We reached the farm at Nesbø in the afternoon; and fell quite in love with its cuteness and perfect setting right by the glittering lake. Half an hour or so more and we had finished the last part of the trek and reached the small community at Østerbø.

From here, we had to get back to our car in Vassbygdi; as it wasn’t high season yet, not many busses left from Østerbø; so we either had to wait 3-4 hours or try to get a lift from someone. So we sat down besides the main road and waited; unfortunately not that many cars passed and none picked us up. But 20 minutes or so later, a small bus came by. The bus belonged to an elite sports college, whose student literally ran the stretch we had just walked. Luckily the students had been dropped off and the bus was returning to the other end of the trek to pick them up, so we got a perfect ride and were dropped of directly at the small carpark were our car was parked! Couldn’t have been luckier - a big thank you to the driver of that bus.

And so our trek through this part of Aurlandsdalen was over, and we drove on to the next adventure.

Korcula Island

2010-08-22 00:00:00

Korcula Island was just what we wanted, peace and quiet and not many other tourists, coupled with super cute little towns and the drop-dead beautiful azure blue ocean what more could you want? Ohh what about the dozens of vineyards and neat little fields filled with olive trees? We had some great drives around Korcula Island taking it all in.
Korcula town was like a mini Dubrovnik, an old walled city built with big stone it was very charming. Unfortunately the weather was cold and rainy, so we mostly cuddled up in bed and read a ton of books :)

The weather cleared up and we headed on to the other end of the island, here we found a nice campground. Within walking distance was lots of beautiful little coves with the most amazing water, we could have easily spent a week or two here just lazing by the ocean.

One night as we were having dinner by the harbor in Vela Luka, we were lucky enough to witness a procession walking through town, they were celebrating the feast of "Corpus Christi" - an important festival in the Catholic Church. It commemorates the institution of the Holy Communion.

Durmitor National Park

2010-08-22 00:00:00

We enter what we think is the camping ground, but it might also just be somebody’s front yard… An gnarly man meets us with a grunt, we confirm that this is indeed a camping ground and put up our tent. Martin ask the guy how much it cost to camp, and we think he said 9 euro’s, he is not too easy to understand…
We put up our tent – and it has been a while since we had a view like this from our tent – right behind us a huge snow capped mountain juts out of the green pine forests and reaches way up into the blue sky, this place is gorgeous!

Gnarly man points toward the forest and ushers us that way, pointing we understand so we head off. It turns out it is a back road into the national park (gnarly man just saved us the entrance fee!) and we are surrounded by mountainess beauty all around us. We decided to do the walk around the lake, it is a pretty easy and very scenic walk, or at least it is easy on one side of the lake, on the other side we have to pass through several small waterfalls thundering down the mountain side. We take our shoes off and wade through; the water is freezing cold as it was melted snow from the top of the mountain – brrr!

The Montenegrin Coast

2010-08-22 00:00:00

Puh! we have covered a lot of ground already and by the time we left wet and rainy Drumitor we were a bit tired. It turns out that geographically Montenegro is pretty much just mountains, upon leaving Drumitor we kept expecting to get down from the mountains soon, but no we just kept going up one mountain and down the next, a bit tiring to drive through. But we were in luck because when the mountains finally ended – when we hit the coast, there was the bay of Kotor! A narrow road led us down one side of the fjord and we came upon a cute little village where all the houses are built with rustic stones, here we found a lovely man who rents out apartments. We have a balcony with a view out into the fjord, the village is pretty quiet, only happy chatter is heard as our host and most of the other older men in the village have gathered down by the water to discuss world business :) This is just what we needed!

We have explored the surroundings and walked around the old towns of Kotor and Perast, very charming places with little plazas and seaside restaurants that serve rustic Italian and Montenegrin fare; we have had pizza, pasta, grilled squid, grilled chicken breasts, local cheese etc.

Our host also has a little swimming platform, beaches here are pretty much nonexistent it seems with the mountains plunging right into the waters, instead little platforms has been built from where one can jump in the water – a great invention!

A little corner of Serbia

2010-08-22 00:00:00

We nipped into Serbia to the region of Zlatibor. Zlatibor is a charming mountainess patchwork of small village settlements, in the winter it is a skiing destination and in the summer people come to hike, bike and horseback ride in the green rolling hills. We managed to find a whole apartment with kitchen, living room, bedroom and bathroom (bigger than our place own at home) to rent for a couple of days, we thought it was quite a bargain for 20 Euro a night!

Zlatibor enchanted us with its wildflowers, cute old cars and traditional houses and churches in wood. We went for a walks in the green hills and had a picnic lunch in the sun.

We explored the small roads snaking through the mountains from one village to another in our little Skoda. We went to a huge cave that contained some ‘baths’, nobody in Serbia seemed to speak any English and it was the same with the guy taking money at the entry to the cave, but he was friendly and offered us raijka – that is some strong stuff! Luckily we made friends with a little family of 3 where dad was French-Canadian and mom was Serbian, so Stella as her name was, could translate for us, and that was lucky because raijka-guy knew a lot of great stories about the cave including everything from mummified animal to TV-host jumping into the icy-cold baths and almost catching lumonia! Sylvain and Stella and their little girl Lara was heading to a waterfall nearby and we tagged along, the waterfall was beautiful and it was in many layers and we followed it further and further down – good fun! It turned out that Sylvain and Stella had rented a little cabin in an open-air museum that we had been trying to find – so once again we tagged along :) We ended up spending all evening with them, having a scrumptious typical Serbian very meat-based meal and later we had lovely strong Turkish coffee and watched the semi-finals of the Eurovision show. Eurovision is BIG down here, and we all cheered when Denmark made it onto the finals! :) It was a lovely day with great company.

Bosnian Adventure

2010-08-06 00:00:00

We drove from Croatia to Bosnia i Herzegovina to the town of Mostar, a very quaint little town in the Southern part of the country. Once we crossed the border the roads got slightly more potholed and the temperature rose a bit.
Upon arriving to Mostar we easily found our accommodation at Hostel Nina where we got a lovely room for 20 Euro. It was nice not to get lost for a chance :)
We spend the rest of the day walking around the little town center, it was picturesque to say the least with its narrow cobbled lanes, robust stone houses and of course the fantastic bridge! For the best view we went into the mosque compound, there we sat in the early evening sun under the minaret and took in the fantastic view of Stari Most and the blue Neretva River gushing under it, it was perfect – it was a great mix of east meets west, orthodox Christianity and moderate Islam, and old Europe as I think it just might was once. We sat there for a long while, occasionally catching the soft scent of the nearby elderflower trees that was blooming, right until the mosque caretaker politely told us he had to close the gate now.

But all was not always this idyllic in Mostar, we saw a photo exhibition of photos of the town during the war. The photos showed how the bridge and the town surrounding it got more and more out shelled during the years of 92 and 93, in one of the photos someone had placed a white flag on top of the bridge, little did that help though, the bridge fell in 1993 as it was gunned down by artillery fire.
Vast international assistance efforts have since rebuilt most of the UNESCO-listed old city center. In 2004 the Old Bridge was reconstructed using 16th century building techniques and stone from the original quarry. Now it looks as beautiful as when it was first built in 1566. However as soon as you walk a few streets away from the bridge many of the buildings lie as empty shells with no roofs, window glass or floors, the outside walls are filled with bullet holes and here and there rockets had left big gaping holes. Walking around these buildings it was chilling to think that the war only ended 15 years ago, most people we pass on the streets have witnessed the atrocities that happened here not that long ago.

The drive from Mostar towards Sarajevo was surprisingly beautiful, it took us through idyllic rural areas and we entered the mountains, tall beautiful and green – some of them still snowcapped! For a long time we drove alongside the Neretva River that carved its way through the mountains, it was gorgeous scenery.
As we entered Sarajevo we discovered to our delight they still have trams here, in my opinion trams really add to a city! So does the green mountains that jut up just outside Sarajevo. All in all it is a pretty capital and it doesn’t seem very big and we also – quite surprisingly and maybe a bit lucky – easily enough found our choice of accommodation down a tiny lane right after the mosque with a wooden minaret – cute!!! After Split we were expecting to get horribly lost all throughout the Balkans.
Café culture has been perfected into an art form here in Sarajevo it seems, and of course we had to take part! We has lunch down a cobbled lane at the cutest little place with green shutters, cabbage, a yellow curry sauce and smoked meat formed the majority of the meal but it was nice and filling, later after ambling down little lane after lane and admiring one grand old building, church, mosque and synagogue after another we ended up at another little café with sofa like benches, here propped up against big pillows we regained some strength over a Sarajevosko Pivo (the local beer) or two.

The war definitely seems as a thing of the past. On the surface Sarajevo is a capital like any other in Europe; lots of traffic, bustling shopping streets with fashion boutiques and restaurants and beautiful old architecture. Too many graveyards, a few bullet holes in the facades and a “Sarajevo Rose” here and there remind you of the tumults of the past though.

We just had two shots of Bosnian rajki, given to us by our host’s uncle – the first one was simply out of hospitality, the second because we forgot to take a picture of us having the first! It is strong stuff to have in the middle of the afternoon, when you are already a bit tired from walking in the hot sun all day – but it’s nice to feel welcome.

A Hoi An saturday

2010-08-05 00:00:00

Got up at 6-ish for a day of sightseeing: My Son a UNESCO World Heritage Site, beautiful butterflies and cute geckos added to the experience. Later a hot climb up Marble Mountain, Vietnamese school kids were swarming around my legs like little ants :) Explored baby blue pagodas and huge underground caves filled in sweet smoky incense and Buddha sculptures.

We had seafood at the beach, listening to the waves and comparing funny words in Danish/Norwegian with the Norwegian girls.

Found a cute place for dinner, an old fading colonial house with moldy yellow walls, we stuffed ourselves with fresh spring rolls and Vietnamese dishes we didn’t know – delicious!

A beautiful full moon hung low over Hoi An city and lanterns were flowing in front of every house, the river was a hive of activity, people strolling and boating. We sailed up the river taking in all the lights and I decided I love this city.

Shared to-die-for cakes with good friends and then we moved on to the bar, the rest of the evening a happy flow of mojitos and buckets, crazy dancing all night long, tequila shots in the pool and flying home on the back of a motor bike at 4.30 in the morning, the sweet Asian wind caressing my cheeks.

The House of The Demon

2010-01-03 00:00:00

Our road trip through Oman took us to Wahiba Sands, a huge body of sand covering 12,500 square kilometers. Here we put up our tent on the soft orange sand and fell asleep to the sounds of the wind. The next morning we were woken up by some voices. As we emerged from our tent, we were met by a group of young boys. They asked if we had had breakfast and proceeded to offer us pepsi – lovely breakfast :-) Afterwards they helped us take down the tent and carry our stuff back to the car, by now we don’t get so surprised anymore when we are met by the friendliness of the Omani people, but we still forget sometimes. When trying to cross a street one day on foot, a taxi stopped just before us on the road. I waved for it to pass, as I was sure he simply wanted to pick up the tourists (us) and get paid well. When he didn’t pass, I gave him a stern look and waved impatiently again – then I realized that he hadn’t stopped to try and pick us up, but instead was simply very courteous and stopped so we could cross the otherwise traffic crowded street. It’s so easy to make stereotypes and misjudge…

Our next stop was Sur a quiet sea side town with a very pretty corniche; Sur is famous for dhow building and we did see some of these big wooden boats bopping around in the waters around Sur. Close by is the famous beach of Ras Al Jinz, not famous for swimming or anything – but for its turtles who come to nest here. It was interesting to see the big turtles come ashore to lay their eggs, but even more fun to see the little ones make their way down to the ocean for the very first time!

Wadi Shab is known as one of Oman’s beauty spots and it really is beautiful! Wadi means something along the lines of a river bed – these are often located in a gorge. We walked into the gorge with towering red cliffs on each side, water flows through the wadi throughout the year and has created several pools big enough for swimming. The water was crystal clear and we saw many little fish (and a big one too…!) swimming around alongside us. The locals use the water to irrigate small, small plots where they grow grass for their animals as well as date palms. It was so nice to see greenery again after the drives through Oman’s very dry and barren landscape. Our long walk winded through the gorge, and even along the cliffs high above it – looking down on the greenery was amazing...and a bit scary at times, when the footpath narrowed into less than a meter wide, with a vertical drop of 20 meters to one side and sheer cliff face to the other, offering little handhold and even less comfort :-)

We spend that night on a nearby beach called Tiwi Beach or White Beach named so because of its beautiful, white sand. A lovely place to camp!

Our very last stop before returning to Muscat was “The Sinkhole” it sounded a bit strange when described in the guidebook, a sinkhole is a natural depression or hole in the surface topography caused by the removal of soil or bedrock, this removal is often caused by water. Moreover, according to local legend, a demon lives in the water, the sinkhole is actually called “Bait Al Afreet” which means “house of the demon”. Of course we had to visit this “house of the demon”! When we got there we were very pleasantly surprised, it turns out demons have excellent taste in houses. The sinkhole was about 40m x 20m big, and apparently the depth has never been measured, we descended down a very long staircase made for some mythical breed of giant people; if you were to judge by the size of the steps. The water had an amazing blue color and in my opinion it has to be one of the most beautiful spots in Oman! We swam and snorkeled, Martin even found some lost money (about 15kr all together). I just hope that the locals don’t treat it like a wishing-well and that we will be forever cursed for having picked up the money… Well at least we had a lovely day in the demon’s hole!

Babysitting a Young Meerkat

2009-12-26 00:00:00

We are now in Upington in South Africa on the edge of the Kalahari. Our assault on the Kalahari started in South-Eastern Namibia – so this is going to be a cross-borders-blog-entry! Or as they would say here in South Africa, Trans-Frontier, they love their Trans-Frontier national parks which stretch over the borders with neighboring countries and allow wildlife to roam across the borders at will. This is all very lovely – for the animals at least, but a bit annoying when you spend 3 days in the Kgalagadi Trans-Frontier National Park and see very few animals – because they have all gone to Botswana! But we can’t really complain I think, as we did see lions every day, even the black manned ones so famous in this area, and he really was a sight! So majestic and handsome.

The low concentration of wildlife also gave us an opportunity to dwell more on the small things; we loved our encounters with the naughty squirrels, an elegant yellow mongoose, a tree filled with owls and a Cape fox with three cubs – the cutest thing ever!!! The scenery in the park is also worth going for alone with the low red dunes and a beautiful blue sky.

The highlight of the Kalahari however, came outside the park. A retired English professor of desert ecology and animal behavior has bought a big farm near the park and turned it into a nature reserve. She encourages visitors to come and experience the Kalahari on foot with guided walks in the dunes. When we just got there and knocked on the door a very small creature answered – it was a baby meerkat! It instantly crawled up into my hands and sat there making a little meerkat-sound, too cute! It turned out that Anne (the professor) had saved this little thing, somebody had brought it to her only a week ago where it had been completely malnourished and dehydrated. The little meerkat had been kept as a pet and been fed milk and pap (maize porridge). That had almost killed it, as it is not the right kind of diet for a meerkat at all and it had a terrible diarrhea that had dehydrated it so badly it wouldn’t have lasted another 48 hours, Anne told us. Now the little meerkat, who had been named Puppet, was bouncing around and looked like it was in top form! Ann led me take Puppet out to dig – and boy can she dig! Martin and I spend the next couple of hours running around trying to find little holes that might have insects in them for Puppet to dig out. Her diet (the proper one for a meerkat) now consists of insects such as beetles, grasshoppers, moths and even scorpions! She had a scorpion for dinner that night, meerkats (or suricats as they are also called) are immune to the poison of the scorpions and they can even survive Cobra and Puff Adder bites!

Early next morning Anne took us for a walk in the nearby dunes, Puppet came along of course. Anne is trying to teach her everything she needs to know to be able to survive in the wild on her own, so when big birds of prey flew over us Anne made the “scared-meerkat-sound” to alert Puppet and she also showed her which holes to dig out – and Puppet was successful in digging out three big, fat beetles all by herself!
Anne directed our attention to the many, many tracks in the sand showing the movement of the numerous inhabitants of the Kalahari; we saw tracks from small antelopes, striped pole cats, bat eared fox and a ton of insects like the white dancing spider that leaves a pattern looking like a flower in the sand, the tracks of a beetle dragging along a grasshopper it had caught plus evidence of lizards, small snakes and we saw how a whole little world lived here buzzing around at night. It was quite fascinating and very educational, and it was also very cool to see Puppet going at those holes like a little digging machine and contently munching those big beetles!

Coffee and Dates = Omani hospitality

2009-12-26 00:00:00

Arriving at Salim’s mothers house near Sinaw, we were met by Salim and a small part of his giant family; the number of brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, cousins and children of all these were many. As we had come to almost expect of Omanis, we were greeted with open hearts and lovely smiles by everyone. There were still a day left of Eid, so much of the family were gathered in their home town, which set the a good mood and a happy and inviting atmosphere.

Salim and his wife had lived in Scotland for two years, as the wife was doing her Masters there, so we could share many stories about cold, dark, winter days – which none of us fancied! Salim and his family could not have been better hosts, we were treated royally and were fed even more good Eid food – and also some dishes without beef, which was nice for a change. Salim’s sister cooked up a great feast of many traditional Omani dishes and it was hard to decide which one we liked the best.

An interesting detail about Salim’s family is that they are of mixed decent; Salim’s father had two wifes, one Arabian Omani and one Zanzibar Omani. Therefore some of his brothers were half African and most of the grownups spoke some Zwahili. Zanzibar was until relatively recently part of Oman, and at some point, it was actually the capital of Oman! We were told many stories about the conquests of the Omani, and a little bragging about how Oman had conquered Afghanistan once, something that neither the Soviet Union or Coalition Forces (US) could say to have achieved.
Together with Salim, his wife and two of their children we went out to search for a Beduin (or Bedu in Arabic) camp one evening. The Bedu is known for their hospitality, and as Salims hometown is in one of the regions where the most Bedu lives, he thought we should meet some. Eventually we found a camp and wandered towards it in the fading lights; we were met half way by an older man wielding a huge knife, looking rather grim! As we neared him, he pointed his knife towards us, but soon pointed it to the camp and welcomed us in with a surprised smile. Salim didn’t know the Bedus, but they welcomed us warmly and we had tea, halwa, dades and other sweets as well.

Funny Observations About Oman

2009-12-26 00:00:00

Oman has got to be one of the few countries in the world where Pepsi is king – not Coca Cola. Other favorites are Mountain Dew and Fanta Strawberry!?
The Bedouins are infamous for their crazy driving, none of them have a drivers license and even the kids drive!
Omani men can’t ride bicycles as their long dishdashs will get caught in the wheels!
The many resident Indians here are actually very pleasant and polite people – nothing like the Indians in India!
In an attempt to keep Omani architecture traditional all water tanks are fitted with small ramparts!

A Warm Welcome to Oman

2009-12-26 00:00:00

Muscat is at once very modern with excellent infrastructure, big shiny cars, and a few MacDonald’s here and there, but then there are the moments when you get a whiff of frankincense while walking through the crowded souk or when walking along the cornice at dusk and handsome men and cute boys hurry past you in long, white dishdashes while the call for prayer sounds from the nearby minaret – and you truly feel like you are in Arabia. We have been lucky enough to have found a host in Khalid; a young Omani man, and even though his wife was in labor when we arrived he still took time to set us up in his apartment before rushing back to the hospital. The next morning there was happy news as a healthy baby boy had been born during the night!

It is Eid now which is a Muslim holiday where the family get together, and we have gone with Khalid, his wife and little Said to their small village in the mountains about 2 hours from Muscat. Many Omanis work and live in Muscat but go back to their birth home and families in the villages in the weekends and for holidays. Here we were welcomed by the extended family of many brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles. On the second day of Eid we got up early in the morning to witness the slaughtering of the cows, each house in the village had bought a cow that was now going to be slaughtered! All the men in the village were in high spirits as the cows were brought out, everyone – men and cows – were jumping around and yelling and muuh’ing :-) The cows said their last muuhs and then a short while later all the meat had been cut up, cleaned and brought back to the houses.

What came next was a massive beef-feast that was to last for many days! Some of the meat was cut in little pieces and put on skewers to be barbequed, the barbequing was done communally and we watched in awe as one huge plate of skewers after another was carried from the various houses down to the grill. Each household seasoned their meat in different ways, using various spices, salt and chili – we can testify that they were all delicious!
The rest of the meat was prepared and packed to go into a huge hole in the ground! A big hole lined with stones was used as an oven, first they lid a big fire in the hole to heat up the stones then when there was only coal left the meat packages were thrown in and the hole was quickly sealed with a big lid to deprive the fire of oxygen so that the meat wouldn’t burn. Two days later you take it out and vupti – meat ready to eat!

As mentioned earlier Eid is about getting together with your family, and boy does Khalid have a lot of family! We were taken to the houses of this uncle and that uncle and everywhere we were treated as royalties and fed halwa (a traditional sweet), fruit was cut in small pieces and offered to us along side dates, tea, coffee, Pepsi, nuts and of course more meat!

It is the tradition in Oman that men and women don’t sit together, often I sat with the men though and many of them spoke really good English and we had many interesting talks, but I was also invited to join the women and what an interesting peek into the lives of Omani women! I especially got along well with Khalid’s wife, his youngest sister and their grandmother who was an absolute treasure! The grandmother and I had some good talks despite my complete lack of Arabic and she of course only spoke Arabic. She convinced the other women they should dress me up in traditional Omani dress (oh my…!) and it was so much fun, one of the sisters found her second-day-weeding-clothes and jewelry and shoes were also brought out. I thought I looked a tad weird but they all assured me I looked lovely… Judge for yourself! (Pictures below) :-)
Then Martin of course had to wear the traditional dress too so that we could have pictures taken together.

Otherwise time was spend doing henna, playing with the kids and more eating, I am not sure what Martin did together with the other men, but I’m sure I had more fun! :-) But it was a bit strange to be separated like that, and Martin never got to meet most of the women. We said a teary goodbye to everyone, it is always sad to say goodbye and we had really started to feel part of the family. In the end we drove off down the small dusty roads clutching a bag of meat the grandmother wouldn’t let us leave without. The Omanis have got to some of the most hospitable people in the world and we felt privileged to have celebrated our first Eid together with these lovely people!
Eid however wasn’t over yet and we had another invitation. We had met a family one evening in Muscat who invited us to come visit them, and so we drove towards Sinaw another village some 200km away.

A Big Dress and a Little Luxury

2009-12-11 00:00:00

Namibia had two more encounters in store for us. Close to Aminuis lies a big salt pan, somewhat similar to the famous Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, albeit somewhat smaller. By the edge of this pan another small community campsite have been established, this one run by a Herero women group. We only asked for directions once, and were welcomed to the campsite by Ndjembe, wearing her full dress and hat Herero style. Where the traditional dress of the Herero women stems from we are not sure, but they certainly reminds us of Victorian times – some of the women wear up to 7 underskirts, in order to get the right amount of padding – and this in up to 40 degrees Celsius!!! The hat is a special one too, with horn-like protrudings – as cattle was traditionally extremely valuable and a measurement for status in the Herero society, the hat could symbolize cattle horns; but this is just our guess.

We stayed the night and had a good walk with Ndjembe to the pan and she showed us their small museum, where they store the traditional medicines, old photos and some German war relics. Like most of Namibia, Aminuis was settled by the Nama people but became an important battle site during the German-Nama war, and as the Nama lost and was pushed south, the Herero and other ethnic groups moved in.

Our time in Namibia was almost up, but on the way south to the border, we were lucky enough to stumble upon the Lapa Lange Lodge, where we again enjoyed some luxury at camping prices. Emma Lange greeted us with an open heart, warm smiles and a buiger hug and we were soon settled on the magnificent property of the lodge. A wedding was going to be held the next day, so the staff was pretty busy organizing everything, but still we felt treated like honored guests and not the mere campers we were :) Walking around in the vast bush around the Lodge at sunset was really a pleasure as we spotted many antelopes and even some giraffes while the sun set in an orange sky. We lazed one more day away, swimming in the pool, having a look at the wedding ceremony and enjoying a great braai in yet another beautiful sunset – life is good!

Meeting the People of the Past

2009-12-11 00:00:00

Saying an almost tearful goodbye to the Batswana people, we headed south east, almost into Botswana. Here in the midst of nothingness, thirteen “corridors” have been set aside by the Namibian government for people from the different tribes to settle. The land is dry and wildlife is scarce; water is pumped from boreholes more or less reliable. Here we found a small community campsite belonging to a group of people that stems from the first inhabitants of Southern Africa – The San.
Finding the campsite proved much easier than with the Batswana in Boiteko, but as we entered the sandy grounds, everything was rather deserted, but not derelict. We called out, honked the horn and made noise, but the only one to great us were some donkeys roaming about…well, some life at least.

We ate our lunch and played some cards, hoping for the receptionist, or anyone to come by. After waiting an hour or so, without seeing a soul, we began to wonder if we should drive on, or simply settle for the night regardless. But then we heard voices in the distance; walking out into the bush we stumbled on a small house and what seemed to be a small hamlet. Asking the sole person in sight, a San lady, we were directed towards a big tree. Underneath we found more inhabitants and a girl who knew something about the campsite, and even spoke relatively good English! We were told that the manager was out of town, but she was the secretary and that of cause we could stay. The hamlet and campsite was without water, which was why the campsite was semi-closed. Their water pump was broken and had been so for more than a month! Yes, the entire community had absolutely no water, but they managed, collecting water from the nearest village, 10 km or so away.
Showing us around, we were ensured that we would be well entertained. And so we were…

At sunset the ladies and one of the elder men of the village came, dressed in what can only be described as a loincloth, some ornaments and a few necklaces – bare-breasted and in high spirit they lit a fire and started singing, clapping and dancing. The whole scene was enchanting. We were in the middle of nowhere, with a clear starlit sky, a roaring fire and song and dance, which could have been performed a thousand years ago. Afterwards we chatted with the group, about their dreams and their reality – how they now lived a life as small scale cattle herders, with little means and little opportunity. As with the women in Boiteko, they dreamed that their community campsite could bring in some money, so they could build a school where the San language was taught and maybe even give some stability and safety to their somewhat difficult lives.
The next morning we were met by two of the elder men from the community. Again dressed in clothing of their past, we were taken on a walk into the bush. Here they showed us which plants could help cure toothache, how to make poison used on their arrows when hunting and other lore (such as how to use an ostrich egg as a watercontainer), that the San have known and handed down through generation after generation. Now, they told us, these traditions and this knowledge was being forgotten. Hunting was forbidden and even if it wasn’t, most animals had disappeared from the area in the last 20 years. Traditional medicine was replaced by modern and food was bought in the shops instead of found in the bush. Just as well as sources for bushfood had almost disappeared, just as the animals, because richer farmers had taken over the fertile lands and the San was left with what no one really wanted.
Depressing as some of the stories were, the elder men seemed proud of their skills and knowledge and when talking to the manager of the campsite, a young guy from the community, we agreed that a project like theirs, was one way of keeping this knowledge while also earning some money to develop their community and keeping the San people from migrating to towns, where they often end up in poverty and alcohol addiction.

Feeling the Spirit of Africa

2009-12-11 00:00:00

Namibia’s many natural beauties had made a big impression on us, from orange sand dunes to a majestic lion roaring and a dung beetle rolling by with a round dung ball, all of them so unique and fascinating; but what we experienced today truly touched our hearts – we spend a day in a village with the Batswana people…

After driving in the eastern outbacks of Namibia, on bumpy but drivable roads, asking the locals, and even the local region chief, for directions, we finally found our destination, Epukiro RC. Driving through the typical African village, we had an eye out for any sign for the campsite we were looking for: Boiteko. No signs were found, but again the locals stepped in, and we were shown in the right direction, driving on what could only be described as bush tracks, barely visible through scrub and high grass. Noone was at the campsite though, so again we went searching – this time for the leader of the woman group, who runs the camp. We found her at last, in the middle of her chorus practice! She was very surprised to see us, and a little taken back it seemed; and we were told why: We were the first campers ever to come to their campsite!!

We pitched our tent, and soon were joined be a few of the women from the women group, who lit a fire, made tea and then we just talked the night away. We were told about their project and about their dance group, which we absolutely had to see the next day.

The many talks with the ladies that run this project both the young and the old were so inspiring. They had so many interesting things to say and they were well traveled; the dance troupe has been to most Southern African countries as well as China and Norway. The project leader had been to Germany, she was a very visionary woman. The Batswana people had started the project to preserve Batswana culture, both so that tourist could experience it but also so that their own children and the youth of the village wouldn’t forget.

They started the project in 2003 and so far all the income they have generated has gone into building the site, constructing two traditional Batswana houses and a large circular shaded area where you can hang out.

The next day the dancegroup came to the campsite and preformed a very professional and beautiful show, dressed in their homemade, traditional outfits, they gave a great impression, and there were some real talent. But later on we were to experience even more dancing, when we took a walk around the village, and passed by the village school. Here the younger kids were practicing dancing and singing, and they happily performed for us too. These kids had a joy and spirit that were so striking and touching, their smiles and shining eyes gave their performance something practice can never do. The singing and the dancing almost brought tears to my eyes; the joy that shone from these children was so strong we could feel it in the air and it went straight to our hearts.

These people could be an example for everyone; friendly, hopeful, entrepreneuring and with so much passion that you couldn’t help but feel smitten. If you ever go to Namibia, go visit Boiteko!

Etosha: A Land of Dreams and Nightmares

2009-12-11 00:00:00

Etosha National Park is a wonderland, here the wildlife, often in huge flocks, walk around against a bleached white background interrupted by green trees and blue waterholes. It is highly scenic. In the middle of the park is Etosha pan a huge area where according to San legend a woman lost her child and she cried and cried – so many tears it formed a whole lake, when the lake dried up only the salt from the mothers tears were left. That is what the pan is today, a 5000 sq km area of nothing but white ground, you can see nothing on the other side, the heat makes the ground shimmer like water and the ground merges with the sky into a big blue mass - a surreal sight.

Around the numerous waterholes the wildlife congregate, impalas are everywhere, then a big herd of wildebeest approaches, as they see the water they can’t wait any longer and starts running and bucking, the impalas scatter here and there: their white bums bopping up and down. As soon as the wildebeest have had their fill, a looong line of zebras approaches, keeping the young ones in the middle – a typical waterhole in Etosha.

In the middle of the night we are awoken by a large bang as the lit of a nearby garbage can is pushed off, moments later we here a nerve-racking howl and the sound of hyenas fighting!!! Right outside our tent!!! We had thrown some chicken bones in the garbage can earlier and we can now hear the hyenas crunching these bones… For the longest time we can hear them patting around the tent, their paws against the ground close to our heads. We lie rigid with fear and hope for the best, somehow I fall asleep again after some time. Next morning there are no traces of our night of terror, the birds are singing and everybody around us is happy – did we dream it all? A big paw print in the dust meters from our tent says no.

After that night we didn’t make it up as early as we had hoped, wildlife watching is supposedly best at dusk and dawn. But at around 8.30 we leave the camp and drives off, after 10 minutes we spot a pride of lions by the side of the road chilling in the long grass! There are 3 males and 5 females, we sit and watch them for a long time. The biggest male and one of the females mate several times, the other females walks off out over the savannah and another male roars in the background – pure magic.

At a waterhole later we also see the work of lions, a big adult giraffe is lying by the side of the road, all the meat off its stomach has been eaten, a few meters later lies what is left of a baby elephant. We later hear from other travelers the area has been named “the killing fields”… Nature is tough.

There is also some colonial German history in the park, with graves scattered all over the park and a watch tower in one of the camps and a big white washed fort in another. We climb up the wall of the fort and looks out over the park, a lone zebra is grassing right underneath us.

Etosha is the stuff of dreams as well as nightmares.

Crazy about Cheetahs

2009-12-08 00:00:00

A couple of hours from Etosha National Park the Nel Family has a huge farm and years back they caught some cheetahs who very poaching on their livestock. They wanted to release the cheetahs into Etosha National Park, but the government wouldn’t allow it. The Nels released the cheetahs back in the wild, but kept a litter of pubs that were born while in captivity. Since then the family have taken in injured cheetahs and they try to buy cheetahs off other farmers who trap them, but it is hard as game farms where you can shoot the game offer 10 times the price the Nels can afford.
They now have a few tame cheetahs by their house and some huge enclosures out in the bush where they keep the wild ones, they encourage visitors to come in the hopes of increasing awareness of the plight of these wild animals.
We of course had to see this and we were not disappointed! First we were taken to their garden, and under the blossoming jacaranda trees were 3 cheetahs; 2 adults and a young one. The little one was racing around playing and we could pet all of them, one of the adults started licking my leg – its tongue was so coarse it almost hurt, but what an amazing experience to have such a beautiful animal so close to me! In the end it found me pretty tasty apparently and would like a little taste… But it didn’t really bite and I quickly got away! Cheetahs are not just big house cats :-)

After lots of petting they fed the 3 cheetahs, a big lump of raw meat to each.

Then it was time for a break in their bush bar, we had a few drinks and chatted to some of the other travelers, amongst others there was an overland truck with lots of lively people!
Around sunset everybody piled up the back of the pick-up trucks and drove out into the bush and into the enclosures with buckets full of raw meat. The mood in the back of our truck was high as we saw the first cheetah, and then another one and another one. It was an incredible sight to see them approaching through the high grass, and these were definitely wild – they were growling and hissing and generally looking quite mean! A few of them also made some pretty cute kitty purrs though. Soon the meat was thrown to them and a feeding frenzy broke out!
What a day and what amazing and beautiful animals!

The Safari Crowd and Us

2009-12-08 00:00:00

At Palmwag we got to live it up and pretend to be a part of the wealthy safari crowd. Palmwag Lodge is an up-market place with cute little cottages with thatched roofs and safari tents, bar and restaurant and 2 swimming pools – and all of it have view out over the bush where wildlife can be spotted. Right next to all this they have a camp site where we camped out, enjoying all the amenities at a much lower price! From our camp we also had a lovely view out over the bush and we could see elephant dung really close by. The site was surrounded by bushes and felt lovely secluded, we even had our very own eco-chic bathroom, bade by natural materials and – of course - also with a view over the bush.
We lazed by the pool while keeping an open eye out for elephants and at sunset we had sundowner on the deck seeing giraffes walking by as the sun set, leaving us with an deep orange sky listing to old men telling big stories about their safari exploits.

From Palmwag we drove further north and deeper into Damaraland, we stopped at Fort Sesfontein an old German fort in the middle of the desert, it has now been made into a boutique hotel and it was really lovely. Unfortunately it was also too expensive for us, but we hung out in the garden for a bit enjoying a cold drink and soaked up the ambiance.

Next stop was to be Opuwo a town further north and in the middle of Himba land. The Himbas are a nomadic people who have lived in Namibia always, they smear themselves and their hair with ochre, the women are bare breasted and they maintain many of their old traditions. Unfortunately they have also adopted a new tradition of waving down cars and asking tourists to take a photo of them in exchange for a few dollars, we chose not to be part of that and just not take any photos of the Himbas. On our way to Opuwo we saw a little Himba village, with their small beehive huts and almost naked kids playing. Some adults were walking by the side of the roads and it is very understandable why people are so keen to take photos of them, they look really beautiful and very exotic!
It turned out our little red Citi Golf had other plans than going to Opuwo, about halfway it started to act up! After a lot of unpredictable behavior from the Citi Golf’s side we decided to head back to Fort Sesfontein and get a mechanic to look at it. Back at the fort the mechanic changed the filter but could otherwise not find anything wrong with the car. In the end we called the rental company, after a lot of trouble with our cell phone running out of money and having to use the hotel’s satellite phone, the people at the rental company (Tempest) told us they would bring us a new car – all the way from South Africa! It would be there tomorrow!

The next day a new car turned up delivered right to our camp site, so we said goodbye to the red Citi Golf and hello to a black Toyota Yaris. The Yaris is really comfortable compared to the Citi Golf, but we still kinda miss the little Golf… Especially its high clearance, Namibia’s many gravel roads are not kind low lying cars. However the most important thing – the Yaris work! And we won’t miss the Citi Golf refusing to start, leaking gas, “jumping” in first gear and the fact that none of the doors would really close, Martin had to tighten the bolts all the time to get them to close… Good times with the Citi Golf.

Art Galleries - Namibian style

2009-12-08 00:00:00

Twyfelfontein is a magical area of huge boulders interspersed by impressive rock engraving galleries and the main area with engravings is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. At the nicely laid out visitors center that perfectly blends into the surroundings we were met by a guide (guides are compulsory). He was a very intelligent and well informed young man and we had a nice talk while walking around looking at the engravings. The engravings are believed to be up to 6000 years old and have been done by the San, a nomadic hunter-gather people that have lived in Namibia always it seems. All the engravings are of animals, except for a few human footprints. There were elephants, giraffes, wildebeest, lions etc. but quite surprisingly there were also depicted flamingos and seals - which live by the coast. Our guide told us that it is believed the San travelled to the coast to collect salt, a journey that would take 6 months!
We were there at midday and the hot African sun was beating down on us relentlessly - it was damn hot!

We are camping at a community run place called Granietkop Campsite, it is the cheapest place we have camped so far at 40 Namibian dollars per person, and the setting here is stunning! The camp ground is laid out around a hill made out of big orange boulders and the individual sites are placed around this hill. Each site has its own “kitchen area” with a sink as well as a shower and toilet that are incorporated into the boulders and the cliff side – our toilet came with a great view too. It’s part of the NACOBTA organization, which have many community run campsites around Namibia – quite a lot of them sounds very appealing! (www.nacobta.com.na)

Our site is really secluded and it feels like we are the only people in all of Namibia, while we are sitting here looking out over the beautiful landscape that stretches out beneath us. We ate a lovely meal that we cooked on our camping stove as the sun set casting an orange light over the boulders making them look like they were almost on fire. Later as the shiny full moon rose we retired into our tent for a peaceful night’s sleep, next morning however we woke up to the sounds of two little rat dassies who had found a packet of biscuits that we had left out the night before…

Namibia unplugged - off the tarmac

2009-12-08 00:00:00

Our venture into Damaraland started when we left cold and clammy Swakopmund and drove up the salt road on the skeleton coast. We stopped at the Cape Cross Seal Colony, here thousands of seals were basking in the sun and swimming around offshore. It was an incredible sight, and the smell was also truly something else!!! We stayed for a while watching the huge male seals that can weigh up to 300kg try to scare of each other with frightening roars, with the little ones scrambling away trying to avoid getting squashed. Pup mortality is high, and if they aren’t squashed to death by older seals, many other dangers await: In the ocean killer whales and sharks prey on them and at land they have to look out for hyenas and jackals. We saw a couple of dead jackals lying about, so apparently it isn’t fun and games for them either…

We continued up the Skeleton Coast and the scenery got bleaker and bleaker, on one side we had the cold, grey Atlantic Ocean and on the other side sand dunes that was later replaced by flat sandy scrub land. We could see really far on each side and still see nothing, there was absolutely nothing there! Not true, we did pass one or two salt digs and by the side of the road were these little stalls selling salt crystals. We of course had to get one!
After driving way past our turn-off, driving back about 40km and then starting to drive inland the scenery changed, slowly it started to look more hospitable and we saw these awesome plants called Welwitschia; they are in fact trees and can be many thousands of years old!! They hardly need any water and grow super-super slowly only growing 2 leaves in its lifetime (these are however quite big and end up getting ripped into several leaves by wind and animals). Animals won’t eat them as they have some kind or toxic or maybe just taste real bad. At one point we saw this little thing racing along the side of the road a bit ahead of our car, it turned out to be a meerkat! I have always wanted to see meerkats and we got really excited.

The camp site we wanted to go to proved impossible to find and we ended up down some roads that were definitely not for normal sedan cars – still unable to find the place we decided to head to a “near by” town 2 hours of bumpy and sandy roads away… Dusk was approaching and the mood in the car was at this point not the best.
Suddenly we spot a group of zebras! We are not in a national park or anything, we are just driving along one of the county’s D’roads (the roads are marked from A-D, however there aren’t any A roads – I guess that says something about the standard of the roads). Back to the zebras, there they were - real wild zebras not behind any fences or anything. It was a beautiful moment, and the mood in the car got a little better ;-)

We reached the little town of Uis and checked into a lovely camp site with a swimming pool, the next morning after having slept-in we were up and ready to continue our Damara land adventure!

Alles Lekker in Kap Staad

2009-11-25 00:00:00

We didn’t spend too much time in Cape Town, as there were other African attractions that kept us busy – but it’s by far the nicest big South African city that we have encountered. Walking around the center is nice and the vibe in the city is pretty easy going. We especially enjoyed the Bo Kaap area with all the brightly painted buildings and relatively quiet streets.

In the central park we had a nice lunch on a lawn, while looking at all the grey squirrels roaming about. The fort and the now very trendy harbor front were also worth a look as well as some of the old buildings in town. We didn’t go up onto Table Mountain as the weather wasn’t very clear and because the cable car ride simply was too expensive! All the praise you hear about the city’s scenic backdrop of Table Mountain is something that eludes us a bit – it’s a somewhat flat mountain, is that really so special?
We enjoyed our time in the city none the less, enjoying an ice-cream at the harbor while looking at some young people performing some very lively African dance. We also visited the small museum housed in the building that used to be the launch point for the ferry to Robben Island, the island where many people were held as political prisoners during the apartheid amongst them Nelson Mandela.

Deserted deserts

2009-11-25 00:00:00

Namibia is spectacular scenery, long distances, dry desert land, amazing sunsets, African landscapes just as we Europeans imagine them and probably much more that we are yet to discover.
Soussusvlei is a surreal un-earthly place of towering orange sand dunes intercepted by a few flat pans where the ground/sand is so dry it looks like rock. In this white pan flanked by tall orange dunes are some poor trees who thought they could make a living there but were horribly wrong. Now they stand there all dried up, looking so out of place that you have to blink a few times to make sure your eyes are not deceiving you.

We could drive most of the way to Sossusvlei; it was a beautiful drive as hot air balloons rose on the sky accompanying the big yellow sun in its ascent and a lone jackal ran towards the rising sun as our car approached. The last 5km however are too sandy for our little Citi Golf so we had to walk, it was a bit of a tough slog through the sand, but the views of the rising sun making the orange dunes glow as the first light hit them well made up for it.
Walking back in the middle of the day under the hot sun was another story… but we covered up against the burning rays, put on lots of sun-lotion and drank lots of water and luckily about half way we got a lift by a lovely South African family in a 4x4. You can always count on the South African to help you out! Back in the comfort of the AC in our little car we quickly regained our strengths and set out for more dunes.

We scrambled up and down the dunes, struggling on the way up and almost flying as we ran back down, getting sand everywhere in the process :-) We had a picnic lunch by a big dune; Dune 45 called so because it is by the 45km marker on the road.

We stay at a camp site near Sossusvlei amidst open savannah landscape teeming with birds, geckos and hares. Here we have enjoyed sundowners while taking in the views and had our dinner under a big, starry night sky, the only thing we hear is the wind and the buzzing insects. At night we fall asleep close together in our yellow tent with sand in our hair and calm souls.

Humid Hong Kong

2009-11-25 00:00:00

Hong Kong… hmm where do I start… It is big and chaotic, but I guess you already knew that.
The weather has been awful, it is HOT and really, really humid. The air is thick and grey, at one point both of us found it a little harder to breathe than normally. We went up to the peak to see the fantastic view out over the Hong Kong skyline, except you could barely make out the buildings in the thick soup of grey that they call the sky here.

It is also really crowed here, worse than the malls in Singapore, worse than the metro in Taipei, and maybe even worse than the markets of Bangkok – and on top of that, it is crowded everywhere.
The population here is an interesting mix of Chinese, nannies and maids from Indonesia and the Philippines, Indians, Africans, Arabs – all here to do some kind of business – and some Western expats. Some of the parks get really busy with the migrant workers on weekends – one of the parks in Kowloon, close to the big mosque, was filled with Indonesian maids on picnic; a square in Central normally attracts loads of Filipinos and so on.
The Indians really make themselves noticed in the Kowloon area of Hong Kong; you can’t walk for 5 minutes on the street without having an Indian guy after you “Copy watches, copy handbags Ma’am”, it’s almost like being back in the sub-continent.

“After the parade, the street was very empty…nice for a change!”

Everybody raves about shopping in Hong Kong, so far we haven’t seen anything we would like to buy, and it is not that cheap either… We believe we have been to all the right places, but so far it has been pretty disappointing, even good bargains on electronics we weren’t able to find!? We found shopping in Thailand and Taiwan, even in Singapore, was much better and cheaper.
The first morning we woke up here in Hong Kong there was a parade on the street; it was apparently the Chinese national day, which of cause meant red banners and stars. But the parade also featured kids on rollerblades, old women with lanterns, fancy old cars, Sri Lankan dancers, Dragon and Lion dancers and many other remarkable sequences. It was a great parade and clearly the highlight of our time in Hong Kong, so it was lucky we arrived when we did.
All in all, we can’t say we really care a lot for Hong Kong, but now we’ve been there and know that…

Welcome to Namibia!

2009-11-19 00:00:00

This is day one in Namibia, and I’m smitten! The landscapes we have driven through – wow! It is all open, dry and slightly barren to look at, but above all beautiful. We are now in Fish River Canyon, we left South Africa this morning, we drove from Citusdal to the border and then onto here, all in all about 800km, it bit tiring but it went fine. The border crossing also went smooth, it was easy-peasy to get out of South Africa, going into Namibia they wanted to know the address of where we were going, if we could please state how much money we thought we were going to spend in Namibia – just approximately, and other crucial stuff like that… There has got to be some kind of law that says that border officials have to seem slightly bothered and tired, anyways it was all over in 15 minutes and we were on our way into the moonscape that is Namibia. We were a bit astonished that the scenery could change so much just across the border, and we definitely felt like we were in a different country – even though the ATM spat out South African rand (a bit weird).

The place we are staying at is called Canon Roadhouse and it is quite nice, it has an interesting theme trying to recreate an old Route 66 fantasy with vintage cars with cactuses growing out of them and number plates decorating the restaurant.
The camp site is great too; we have got a very secluded spot under a big tree – nice and cozy :-) Plus there is a lovely swimming pool with sun chairs and the whole shebang.

The Fish River Canyon is a big and impressive, but somehow they surrounding scenery made a bigger impression on us. Quivertrees dotted the landscape and they were the only thing growing to more than a meter tall. The sunset over the desert was totally out of this world; it almost looked like the sky was on fire!

The good life - South African style

2009-11-19 00:00:00

The scenery in the Winelands is beautiful, gorgeous Cape Dutch buildings lie scattered around the wine fields backed by dramatic mountains and everywhere colorful flowers blossom; little white flowers on the apple trees, pink bourgounville climbs up a white washed cottages and red and white roses mark the entrance to yet another wine estate.
We drove around in the region, eating and drinking our way through wine tastings at various wineries, lovely cheese platters at cute little deli’s, fresh strawberries from farms along the road and gourmet chocolates from Huguenot Fine Chocolates.

After the winelands we drove to the Cape peninsula where we stayed near Kommetjie Beach, a beautiful white sand beach. Here we went for long walks along the water’s edge, it was too cold to swim as the water comes up straight from Antarctica making it only 10-15 degrees… In the evenings we’d pick a sand dune and sit there and watch the sun go down while munching on fine Huguenot chocolates and fresh strawberries – life is good :-)

Further down the Cape peninsula on the east side lies Boulders Beach which a big colony of African penguins (also known as Jackass penguins) call home, on this side of the peninsula the water is somewhat warmer as it is still the Indian Ocean, so we had a nice day by the beach while watching the penguins.

The Karoo

2009-11-19 00:00:00

Graaff-Reinet is a lovely town; the 4th oldest in South Africa it has maintained it is old world charm with lots of Cape Dutch architecture, broad boulevards and a relaxed atmosphere. Most houses in the city center are whitewashed, single-story and kept in the old style, often with many flowers in the small front yards. As pretty as the town is, it is the surrounding landscape that will have you love this place. The Karoo is amazingly beautiful here; the arid plains rise up into evenly arid, but stunning mountains, and while not many drops of rain fall here, shrubs, thorny trees and colorful wildflowers abound.
We took a few walks into the Camdeboo National park, which straddles Graaff-Reinet and contains some of the most beautiful scenery at Desolation Valley. Clear blue sky made our walk hot, but the wind was cool. We really soaked up the sun, enjoying the clear weather, as we had missed it a lot. Travelling mostly in Southeast Asia, you quickly get used to sunshine every day.
Heading for the top of a mountain overlooking the Desolation Valley and the nearby Spandauhok Mountain, we got to see some amazing vistas. Graaff-Reinot was like an oasis below, white and glistening, while the orange Karoo spread as far as the eye could see. Close to Graaff-Reinet is a very large dam though, which serves as a water reservoir, but even with that much water close by, the semi desert still prevails there too.

Driving from Graaff-Reinet southwest through the Karoo, we visited some small and cute towns along the way. Especially Matjiesfontein was an interesting stop. A single street along the railway is all you get, but what a different world you enter. The main building, the Lord Milner Hotel was build over a hundred years ago and attracted wealthy people as a health resort in its heyday; Cecil John Rhodes, Winston Churchill and the Sultan of Zanzibar have all been entertained here. The other buildings are just as charming; the old post office is now a charming curio store, and other buildings house small museums or are now adjoining self catering cottages, or staff quarters. To complete the colonial atmosphere is a red London bus fully functioning, which is sometimes used to give a very short, but fun sightseeing tour up and down the street. You can also stop and refuel your car at the old and older fuel pumps outside the old post office.

Be careful when you drive on the looong stretches of Karoo road. They are long, straight and easy to drive fast on, and even though the Karoo seems a harsh place, it is not without wildlife. Several times did we have to break and steer ‘round big or small tortoises crossing the road and game can jump in front of you too.
Just before entering the Winelands, we had a stopover in Montague in the very southwestern part of the Karoo. The town is beautifully nestled at the foot of high mountains, which separate this part of the Karoo from the more fertile valleys to the south. We stayed at a great little backpackers/farm, where Ostriches, Peacocks, Dogs, Cats and an adorable little pony kept us company.

While settling in for the night, we were amazed by a beautiful sight on the clear and starry night sky. A star-like light, trailed by a less shining light, was making its way across the firmament. What made the whole thing incredible were the 5 blurred rings, expanding from the first light like ripples in water and slowly fading as they grew larger; the outer ring must have been 10 times the diameter of a full moon. While looking, the first light flared, producing a new inner ring that also slowly expanded from it. After 5 minutes or so, and a few more ring producing bursts, the lights had crossed the sky, and disappeared over the horizon. We were quite puzzled by its nature, and we have yet to figure out what could have caused such a spectacular sight. Our friendly neighbors on the campsite were very excited the next day, asking us if we had seen “the spaceship” as well. We could confirm that we had indeed seen the same thing on the night sky; a spaceship though, it probably wasn’t :-)
(PS. Later we discovered that our sighting was a rocket dumping fuel into the atmosphere - NASA should make more of these spectacular "fireworks", haha)

A Visit to the People who Click

2009-11-19 00:00:00

It was raining and the sky was hanging low and grey over our heads, we were on our way to Bulungula; a community run place by the ocean on the wild coast. It is deep in the Xhosa homeland, and the roads are somewhere in between horrible and non-existent – the first part of the way down to the coast is gravel roads, which you do in your own car, be warned, it’s not easy driving, especially after rain. You park your car about an hour away from this place and they come and pick you up in a sturdy 4x4, something we discovered was very much needed. It had been rainy weather for the last few days, so the track was pretty wet and slippery, at places the driver simply chose to go besides the track! It was a fun and VERY bumpy ride; no way would our Citi Golf have made it.
The community run a variety of little tours, we opted for one called “Women Power” were you get to partake in the everyday of a Xhosa woman. We collected water and carried it back to the little round hut on our heads; we cooked and we talked. The two young women, who were our guides for the day, were about my age, both unmarried and both had respectively 1 and 2 kids. The reason they were unmarried was that any young man who wish to marry, must pay a bride-price of 10 cows to the bride’s family, each cow cost about 5000 rand (about 3300kr). Cici-wu (as one of the girls were called) said that when her boyfriend came to her family’s hut her father would chase him away with a stick, because the boyfriend doesn’t have 10 cows (or any cows for that matter) to pay for her. We asked her if he was saving up for the cows; he was, but it would probably take a long time, she added. It seems that this system had the girls all ending up pregnant but with no husbands…

While hearing the Xhosa chatter away among themselves, we very soon heard something that is very special indeed. Xhosa language has, as many other of the South African languages, some sounds that we Europeans have a hard time mimicking; the clicks. Xhosa language sounds very foreign, but when you hear the various clicking sounds in midsentence, you know that this is truly another world. Xhosa is actually pronounced “’Click-sound’-oohsa”.
Another day was spent paddling a canoe up the nearby Xora river, a lovely way to relax and watch the amazing scenery. We spotted a few Kamikaze Fish jumping out of the river, a big turtle in the water and a beautiful kingfisher hovering above the lake and swiftly diving for a small fish. Walking in the wide, totally deserted beach, with big waves crashing onto the cliffs in the distance, we felt a world away from civilization; which we might actually have been…

Relaxing in beautiful Barberton

2009-11-07 00:00:00

After dusty Kruger we drove to Barberton; a town that dates back to South Africa’s gold rush days. Several old hoses remain from the boom days and Barberton is also home to South Africa’s first stock exchange. Things have calmed down concededly since then and Barberton now has an appealing small-town feel. We went for a walk through the quiet streets and took a look at the old houses who all, to our surprise, were build out of corrugated iron! But they were pretty cute none the less. The thing that made the biggest impression on us were all the flowers though, all the trees were in bloom and red, orange, purple, pink and yellow were everywhere. It was such a pretty sight!
We were staying with a girl through Couchsurfing, her name is Bronwyn and she turned out to be great, she arranged for a braai for us. Braai is the Afrikaans word for barbeque and the South African’s LOVE their braai! It is like a national pastime and at all camp grounds and picnic spots you will find braai facilities. Now we were being treated to our first braai – and it was lovely! We had deliciously super quickly flame grilled beef filet, it was still kinda raw in the middle – and just perfect! Plus lots of wine and talk made for a wonderful first braai :-)
Barberton is very close to the border to Swaziland, we went for a drive up in the mountains along the border. It was beautiful and serene up there, so we found a good spot and had a nice picnic and relaxed.

The Roar of the Lion

2009-11-07 00:00:00

I am sitting in our camp in The Kruger National Park writing this and an elephant just passed by outside the fence! The fence can’t keep out the many naughty birds nor the even naughtier monkeys. The monkeys are of the small Vervet Monkey kind and look quite cute - right now they have taken over our neighbors’ place, jumping around on the canvas of the tent having a great time. They also stole an onion from somewhere, but of course they didn’t like it.
This morning at breakfast our neighbor campers (to the other side) were having breakfast right up against the fence, and when the parents weren’t looking the little girl passed a few crumbs to a hungry antelope standing on the other side of the fence. You are actually not allowed to feed the animals, and they are not all cute like the breakfast antelope, at night when it is all dark big scary looking hyenas walk up and down along the fence, as they can smell the meat being cooked on the braais (South African for barbeque). One of our neighbors told me a story about a man who once wanted to feed a biltong (South African for sausage) to a hyena, the hyena took the biltong – and the man’s hand! So don’t mess around with the hyenas!

We drove back to the camp in the sunset. The sun; big and yellow, was draping the savannah in a golden light – the scenery here can be extremely beautiful but sometimes also extremely drab. The open savannah looks like something out of Lion King, but there are many ecosystems here, all of them different and many very, very dry. It is the beginning of the rainy season, but so far only a few drizzles have come to this region, so rivers and many waterholes are all dried up.
But the wildlife is still plentiful! Many, many impalas graze on the grassy plains, other antelopes graze among them or occupy the forests or rocky mountains. Zebras and Wildebeests are also very common especially in the savannah regions and elephants we have spotted every day, always close to a water source.

Our first new encounter was with a hippo; he was lying almost totally submerged in a river and didn’t budge at all, meaning no good pictures! This trend continued the next couple of days; submerged hippos that weren’t up for photographing at all! One day we spotted a couple of hippos on land, yay! Though soon we realized that even though they were on land, the trend continued – they were simply lying there, totally still, just looking like big black rocks. After driving further up the river, we finally spotted two adult hippos and a calf actually standing!!! They were grazing on the river banks slowly walking around, eating some of the 40 kilos of grass a hippo can consume every day. They were far away, but still made for much better watching and photographing than their lazy submerged cousins.
There are many birds as well. Naughty hornbills roam the campsites, and colorful kingfishers and bee-eaters plus big owls and eagles made for interesting sights. The biggest bird of all, the Ostrich can also be spotted on the savannah. We saw a family of mom, dad and a big bunch of chicks strolling down the road at dusk. They are pretty strange animals, so big bodies and the smallest head – one can wonder how such a small brain can control such a large animal.

Kruger has a lot of big cats, and we were lucky enough to see lions on more than one occasion. Our first encounter was with a pack of females, which we spotted on the other side of a ravine – they were a bit far away, but we could still clearly hear the roaring and see them well in our small binoculars.
The next day we spotted a male lion lying by the side of the road; he was lying very, very still for quite some time and we could see he had a wound on the forehead, so we left him for dead. Another car, with a family stayed put, and we headed on. It was sad to see such a big, beautiful animal lying there completely lifeless.
A little later on we drove the same way back and saw that the same family was still parked at the lion and we got a bit curious – when we stopped, we could to our amazement see that the lion had changed position! Inquiring the family about it, they could tell us that the lion indeed wasn’t dead, but merely very, very lazy! Staying there for another while, and we could witness that he did move around and didn’t seem very dead anymore – he was simply lying there enjoying the sun… it became a happy day in safariland anyway ?
On the way out of the park, we were again lucky, and spotted first one then two more lions just by the side of the road only 25 meters apart. One was old and we were later told by a ranger that this one actually was dying, so he was quite sedate. But the two others were a mating couple, seeking solitude from their pride. They were happily lying there relaxing and didn’t seem to take notice of us at all. Looking at them almost cuddle, hearing them roar and being that close to one of the biggest predators in the world was quite an experience – and we could get some nice photos. We didn’t spot any leopards, but you can’t have it all.

Mapungubwe National Park

2009-11-07 00:00:00

Mapungubwe National Park runs along the banks of the Limpopo River and the park extends into Botswana and Zimbabwe across the river as well. We spent 2 nights in the park that covers 28.000 hectares, but combined with the area in Botswana and Zimbabwe is more than 10 times that size. Animals can roam freely across the river, which in this season is very possible. The Limpopo River was reduced to a small and quite shallow stream that antelopes, elephants and monkeys could easily cross.
The park offered fantastic vistas across to Botswana and Zimbabwe and of the dry river bed, we spotted a herd of elephants making their way to the dwindling waters and witnessed how they played, drank and simply hung out at and in the cool stream. One of the elephants decided to leave his buddies and walked the long way across the dry riverbed to Botswana – maybe there were some pretty female elephants on the Botswana side?
It wasn’t our first encounter with elephants, a majestic animal that the park has in abundance! The first day we arrived and were driving through the park to the campsite, we had to stop in the middle of the road, because a big elephant started crossing. Clearly it thought that it had right of way! When the elephant had cleared the road, we were about to start the car again and go forward – but another elephant came out of the bush, this time with a youngster at its tail. Before they had crossed another couple of elephants wandered out into the road, and so they kept coming and coming. At one point elephant were all around us! We stopped counting at 30 something, but a guestimate would be a little more than fifty individuals, maybe around twenty were young or even babies.

The parks landscape was really beautiful; it was quite dry, but the rocky mountains and dusty plains were nicely intertwined, creating dynamic and ever changing views. Especially at sunset it was magnificent! We were driving one clear day when the sun was setting, and everywhere you looked the landscape had this flaming red, magical light that simply was breathtaking – safari is not all about the animals.

One afternoon and early evening we spent in a hide overlooking an almost dried out waterhole. But as this was one of few waterholes, which actually still contained water, quite a few animals came by. Mostly it was plant eaters; antelopes, zebras and a family of warthogs, with 3 very cute youngsters running in a neat line, but pushing and shoving once they reached the drinking hole.
In the background we spotted 2 jackals trying to eat something, dragging the dead animal around. It was our first predators, albeit of the not so dangerous kind – still it was fun to see them feed and fight of some birds and other smaller animals that wanted a bite too.
All in all Mapungubwe National Park was pretty nice; we didn’t get to see any big cats, but the scenery was amazing and the park was blessedly under visited, meaning we had it almost to our selves. The campsite consisted of only 10 lots and then there was a few more luxury options – but compared to what we experienced later in Kruger, Mapungubwe was really nice and sedate.

Taipei and surrounds

2009-10-29 00:00:00

Taipei has efficient public transport that will take you pretty much everywhere; it took us to Yulun’s home, which is outside the center and a bit up in the mountains. The view from their apartment is beautiful, tall green mountains just outside the windows.
The MRT can be very crowded though, especially the Taipei Main St. is pretty hectic – but Taiwanese are polite and are very good at queuing, so it doesn’t feel too overwhelming. Don’t eat, drink or even chew chewing gum though, as a guard will tell you off for doing so. (It seemed that foreigners were more often corrected than the locals, even though locals didn’t follow the rules completely either - maybe the guards just wanted us to know how to behave.)
The MRT also took us downtown one evening to one of the older parts of Taipei; the area around Longshan Temple. We started out at the temple; it looked like something out of a fairytale, gold all over, many carvings and incense sticks burning everywhere. It is a very lively temple, often frequented by locals who come to pray, seek blessings or forgiveness. Yulun went to pray for a bit and we wandered around looking at the temple and its patrons. Yulun and Lily both went to try out the answer sticks; first they had to ask the god if he could help with the question in mind. This was done with two pieces of wood, which indicated yes or no; by the way they landed when dropped to the floor. Both Yulun and Lily got a yes. Second part was to draw a number stick, which corresponded to a poem, which would help answer whatever question you had asked. Thirdly you had to read the poem and probably get it explained by an expert in Chinese, as the poems are written in old style mandarin. The answers were cryptically indeed…
After the temple, we went to the night market nearby. Lots of hustle and bustle, street vendors selling all kinds of food, and things only the Chinese believe is food. We had some weird snacks that we are to date not sure what was, and some good noodle soup.

We also visited the Confucius temple that is often frequented by students – many small pieces of wood hang around the complex. These have inscriptions, often asking for help with exams or other school related issues. The complex was less striking and simpler in design, which is very much more the style of Confucianism.

Another day was spent with some sightseeing. We saw the Taipei 101 building – the tallest building in the world. At least until the construction crazy Dubai builds something higher. We also visited the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial and the two theater/opera buildings adjunct to the memorial. It is a beautiful square especially seen late on a day with blue skies – the light becomes fantastic, and the white Chiang Kai-shek Memorial hall looks stunning with the blue backdrop.

Taipei equals shopping! There are some fantastic shopping opportunities on the night markets, Ximen pedestrian market and various other markets in town. We spent quite a lot of hours in Ximen, buying Christmas presents and clothing for ourselves. Prices are generally very low and you can get pretty cool stuff – it is definitely comparable to Thailand’s fashion markets.
The second to last night in Taiwan we spent with Yulun in Maokong; an area sprawled on the hills south of Taipei. It is known for its many lovely, traditional tea houses and offers great hiking and views across the Taipei valley. Unfortunately the gondola was out of order indefinitely, so we had to take the bus – which made some a bit queasy. But we sat down at a cozy little teahouse, enjoyed the views, many cups of tea and some delicious food, while talking over the many memories we had gotten from Taiwan – a place that has positively surprised us in so many ways, and a country we will miss until we return again in the future.

The last night we spend with Yulun and our friends from the Snow Moutain climbing trip. We had dumplings at a famous dumplings place; very yummy! Afterwards we saw a theater show performed by performers from various aboriginal tribes. We didn’t understand much of the words being said, but the dancing, singing and general choreography was pretty good. It was a nice way to end our stay in Taiwan, but as I’m writing this I long to go back to our good friends and the wonderful country.

A last “thank you” to Yulun and her parents for letting us into their home, showing us around and helping us whenever we didn’t understand whatever we were asked in Chinese. Hope to see you again soon…

Run-in with Rhinos

2009-10-29 00:00:00

We started our safari adventure in the small park of Nwanedi, the vegetation in the park is mainly Mopani and mixed woodland. Overall the park seemed very dry, and at first we thought no animals could live here, but as we drove around we discovered plenty of life. We parked by a waterhole, that had dwindled to a small pool in the surrounding dried mud, and waited for a bit – and sure enough suddenly a zebra came out of the bushes! The black and white animal was beautiful and offered a lovely contrast to the grey and brown surroundings. More zebras came to drink, as well as a giraffe - though he changed his mind when he saw us and walked nervously away…

Dusk was approaching and we were heading back to the camp, suddenly as we passed a 4x4 only gravel side road Martin spotted a big grey butt further down that road, we followed it and it turned out to be a rhino! We felt very lucky to see a rhino on our very first safari-day :-) And we also got our little Citi Golf 4x4 road tested – it did excellent!

The next morning one of the rangers told me that the manager had a baby rhino that had been found orphaned, and that we could pop in and see it if we wanted. Didn’t really know what to expect and a little lost, we asked the local staff near the managers house for directions – they kindly told us that the rhino were just behind the buildings close by. We drove there, expecting to find an enclosure – but found the baby rhino wandering around the front yard without anything confining it. It was so cute and rather big!
We approached slowly, as we didn’t want to scare it, but we were needlessly careful – soon the rhino was testing if we were good playmates, doing so by bumping in to us with and eating Martins shoe (while still on Martins foot). It was great fun petting and playing with the rhino, but also a little dangerous – it wasn’t just small and cute, but incredibly strong and very heavy, giving Laerke some big bruises on her shin. Fortunately it wasn’t yet a good runner, which we had to take opportunity of a few time :)

The park has a nice camp site and some very friendly staff and a nice and relaxed atmosphere with few visitors – which is too bad, as it is a great stop for a night or two. At night Kudus (big reindeer like antelopes) graze around your tent and even a Warthog or two visit. Camping was cheap, and we didn’t even have to pay a park fee, which in many National Parks are quite steep!

Giraffes and Waterfalls

2009-10-29 00:00:00

We started our time in South Africa by couchsurfing (www.couchsurfing.com) with a South African girl and her Italian boyfriend, it was a nice soft landing – we slept well and ate well! One of the days we went to Groenkloof NP, here you can go walking on the trails in the park. When we got there and hit the trails with red dust clinging to our shoes, the hot sun baking on our shoulders and the bush landscape playing out in front of us, it hit us – we are in Africa! Moments later we wandered up to a herd of giraffes, we saw their long necks before anything else. We got pretty close, no fences or anything; it was a really cool moment!
Later on we saw a family of kudus; dad with huge horns, mom and a teenager, we also saw wilderbeast, and some boks.

The same evening we went with our couchsurfing host to a dinner at her friend’s place, followed by us all going out to listen to some live music and sampling the local beer. They know how to have a good time in Pretoria, and the drinks weren’t too expensive :-)
We have rented a car that is going to be our companion for the next 2 months, it is a red Citi Golf, it is a bit small but is has oodles of charm, and we have managed to squeeze all our stuff in the trunk! It does have its quirks and the wheel and stick in the wrong places, though it’s easy to get used to.
From Pretoria we drove to Sabie, a small town at 1000m elevation, here we found a nice camp site and explored the many, many nearby waterfalls, enjoyed the views and froze a bit by night. It’s quite a different climate than the Asian we’ve gotten used to.

Our tent and the campsites lawnmowers

Now we are in Graskop, another small city on the edge of Blyde River Canyon. We’ve checked in at the Valley View Backpackers, have put up our tent and just ate dinner. We arrioved pretty early and it was a beautiful day, so we quickly headed out into Blyde River Canyon – it is one of the biggest canyons in the world and offers some amazing views and even more waterfalls (we skipped these; waterfall overload!).

We had lunch at “The Potholes”, a series of pools carved into the rock by the Blyde river. Blyde river really begins here, and the scenery is quite spectacular. At the Three Rondalvals Viewpoint the views were simply breathtaking!

Climbing Snow Mountain

2009-10-24 00:00:00

Yulun had planned for us to go mountain climbing, she emailed us about while we were still back in Denmark. Back then it seemed very far away and we happily agreed – what could be more fun than climbing the 2nd highest mountain in East Asia? When we got to Taiwan it started to dawn on us that you need all kinds of gear to climb a mountain… Hao-Yu, a friend of Yulun’s who is quite the mountain climbing expert, was going to be the leader of our little expedition. He called us into a pre-departure meeting to discuss gear, what we were going to eat on the mountain, the route etc. He was also rather concerned that we weren’t fit enough to actually climb a mountain, he suggested we go jogging (!) prior to the mountain climbing! The fact that it was around 30 something degrees in Taipei didn’t seem to bother him.
What you wear on a mountain is apparently also really important; we were told: ”NO COTTON” in any of the clothes…hmm…we didn’t have any non cotton clothes :(

Hats and thick jackets was a must too, because it gets cold on the mountain!!! It turns out that the Taiwanese and the Danish doesn’t have quite the same parameter for when it is cold, which does make a lot of sense… I spent one whole day on the mountain is shorts and we were more often hot than cold. The nights got pretty cold though and we were very happy with the warm sleeping bags Hao-Yu lent us (bless his heart). Also, if it does rain or is windy, appropriate clothing is advised.

Throughout our trek we noticed that the Taiwanese LOVE gear! Whether it was the more the better or the lighter the better is still to be determinate. One guy we talked to on the mountain noted that we looked very fashionable (!), but this was probably due to our non-hiking outfits. I think our very normal looking clothing with things like cotton and jeans on the mountain got some stares; “ha ha, crazy foreigners…”
On the morning of the 12th we all met up at campus to pack our stuff into the rental car, which turned out to have no trunk… Unfortunate considering that we had 6 fairly sizeable backpacks. Somehow we managed to get all the packs stowed in the car and we set off.
After a 6 hour long drive we reached the trailhead, and we set off on foot! Finally we had started! At this point we were already at the elevation 2140m. Our destination for the day, the first cabin, called Chika, was 2,463m. It is a 2km, 1.5-2 hour hike to the cabin, which seemed easy enough. However it was ALL uphill, pretty much every step was a step up. I think we all semi-panicked a little to ourselves the first 5 minutes. Toughts like “f… this is HARD, I can barely breathe and it has only been 5 minutes – how on earth am I gonna survive this for THREE days!?!?!” went through our minds (respectively in Chinese and Danish). But it turns out that the first 5 minutes are actually some of the worst!? Once we got going we kinda got into a rhythm and we made it just fine to Chika Cabin.

The next day, after a horrible night’s sleep (due to noisy groups coming and going all night), we set out around 7 AM. Yulun and the others were sleeping soundly, so we just went ahead – didn’t wanna spoil their sleep too. Our destination was “369” Cabin (at 3150m). It was a long and, in parts, tough hike up switchback after switchback, with very little level ground. I think all hikers to Snow Mountain will recall one particularly brutal section of trail called the “Crying Slope”: it was a bit of a challenge with heavy packs on, but we made it!
A little later we reached the summit of the East Peak (3201m), an exposed knoll surrounded by stunning alpine scenery. As we rose in altitude the landscape kept changing.

The trail is wide and clear the entire way up. It is signposted almost every 100 meters (1.1km, 1.2 km, etc.) with maps at the cabins and various points along the way. There are interpretation signs introducing trees, plants, animals and geographical features. They are in English and Chinese and it is great with a little info about what you are looking at, plus it is a valid reason to stop and catch your breath for a while ;-)
Reaching the “369” hut at around midday, we slumped down on the porch and enjoyed the sun, ate some lunch and snacks, and then went for a nap. We scored a small room actually reserved for the camp guards, but no-one was there - great with a little privacy and a bit of noise reducing walls. We slept for a couple of hours…nice!!! Shortly after waking up from the nap, the rest of our team arrived. Unfortunately the clouds were rolling in, so it got quite chilly, the views disappeared and any ascent to the summit had to wait for the morning. We had great 2nd lunch and dinner though. At 369 everyone goes to sleep at 8 PM the latest, so with our little private room and no nightly coming and going, we managed to get a decent sleep.

Next morning we left for the Snow Mountain peak. We didn’t start out really early (to catch the sunset as many groups do) as Hau-Yuo advised against walking in the dark, not because it is dangerous, but because it is boring. The scenery was too good to miss. The first section cut through the Black Forest, a large stand of Taiwan firs. But later and closer to the summit, we emerged from the shade of the firs into an ancient forest of whitened junipers. Even closer to the summit, the short growing season in the alpine environment causes many of the junipers to only grow to a few feet even though they are hundreds of years old. They were an awesome sight, with their twisted roots, and complex branching patterns.

At the point where the forest gave way to alpine meadowland we were just under a kilometer from the summit. The views were grand up a glacial cirque, covered in scrubby Yushan Rhododendron plants about halfway to the summit. Yulun and Allen even saw a dear jumping ‘round the meadows.

The last scramble up the naked, rock and pebble covered stretch was hard. The air was thin and legs were tired from the previous days walking – but our spirit was high and as closer we got, the more we felt that we could make it. And then we were there!

After 10.9 km we were at the summit of Snow Mountain, the 2nd highest mountain in Taiwan and in East Asia. 3886 meters above sea level, it is by far the highest altitude we have been, but this time we had walked there on our own two feet. The views were great, though some clouds had already gathered. But the sun was out, the wind mild and just sitting there on the top, looking to the beautiful mountains near and far, was awe inspiring.
Unfortunately we couldn’t stay forever. We had to go back, all 10.9 km, and drive the car back to Taipei. So we set off. We had a lunch stop at the 369 cabin and then headed to the trail head, but we were already running a bit late. On the way back we heard the barking dear calling, and suddenly we also heard another wired sound. At first we thought it was just a strange bird, but then we saw a big monkey sitting on a rocky outcrop some 100 meters away. It might have felt lonely and were calling for its likes.

We ended up walked the last 2 hours in the dark using headlights. This experience confirmed that hiking in the dark is just about the dullest thing one can do. At the same time our feet and knees were really tired, we could have stopped to rest at the Chica hut, but we just wanted to get down, so that we didn’t need to walk any further! At last we reached the trailhead and the car – and then “only” had a 4 hour drive back to Taipei. Martin and Hau-Yu took turn driving, while Allen entertained so to keep whomever driving awake.
It was an amazing trek; beautiful scenery, great walking and doable for any fit person. We were actually surprised at how well we managed it, but maybe all that traveling does help you get in shape. And with regards to equipment; well, we did just fine in our cotton clothing – Martin is quite possibly the first person in jeans to climb Snow Mountain!

Taroko Gorge

2009-10-08 00:00:00

Taroko gorge is a natural wonder, and the fact that there is a good road winding all the way through makes it a manmade wonder as well! Our little car braved the many turns and twisting road well, making our way deep into the gorge slowly but easily. The road is quite good, sometimes too narrow to have two cars passing each other, but with relatively light traffic, it doesn’t create any serious problems.

We camped right in the middle of the gorge on a great little campsite. This time we had to pay a 200$ fee, but that’s still quite cheap for accommodation.
We did some very nice walks in Taroko. The first one, Tunnel of Nine Turns Trail, is really well known and done by all the tour groups. It’s an old part of the road, that has now been closed for traffic (they’ve build a tunnel for the cars instead) and is really quite amazing. It follows the gorge and bends with the river far underneath. You have to wear a helmet, so everyone either looks like miners, construction workers, engineers or maybe just plain silly.

On the second day we set off for the Shakadeng trail. Again it’s a relatively easy trail in the beginning, with a concrete or flat stone path. It follows the Shakadeng river and twists and turns with it. You pass through some aboriginal land, which is off-limits for tourist. The river looks VERY inviting, but signs everywhere warn of no swimming. Taiwanese tourists don’t seem to be able to read signs though, so at certain good swimming spots, there’ll be a lot of splashing around.
When the trail officially stopped, we headed down to the river, and river traced further up a bit. After a short while we came to the most beautiful swimming spot, with a nice deep pool, big rocks to jump from, a small waterfall and the clearest, green-blue hued water. We immediately put on swimming suits and jumped into the refreshing river.
After a while of swimming we sat on the bank drying, when we suddenly heard a noise behind us. “A bear”, Lily for some reason screamed – which turned out, luckily, to be false alarm. Instead it was two aboriginal kids coming to their favorite fishing/swimming spot, a spot we now had invaded. Though they didn’t mind at all; in fact they seemed to really enjoy having company. We swam around, splashed in the water, made wild jumps from the cliffs and watched them fishing (with little luck). When we later told them, that we first thought they were a bear, the thought it to be hilarious – how stupid can those tourists be ;)

We also went on the Bayan trail – it led us through some long dark tunnels, over bridges with fierce looking currents underneath and to a beautiful waterfall. The trail was closed halfway due to construction though, but it was still a great, but somewhat sweaty hike.
After Taroko, we drove south along the coast on Highway 11. We went on the beach, looked at the magnificent coastline, camped at Shitiping, visited the dragon-like bridge and island of Sansiantai (which under the fierce sun was melting hot) and finally camped in the artsy town of Dulan (again free camping). In Dulan we went to the local sugar-factory cum art workshop, were local artists have set up their workspaces, art galleries and small stores. There was a nice relaxed vibe there and some interesting pieces of art. We didn’t arrive on a weekend unfortunately, as there are often live concerts being held.

Lanyu Island

2009-09-17 00:00:00

Lanyu is wild and windy, rugged and remote and damn beautiful! It is also far from mainland Taiwan, both geographically and culturally. It is 65km of the coast of the city of Taitung, a 25 minutes ride in a very small plane or a 2½ hour boat ride away.

The people here are aboriginals, meaning that they are the original people of Taiwan, the people that lived all over Taiwan before the Chinese came. Their traditions are still strong, but you can feel that modernity is moving in fast on this little island.

Our hosts parents, who pampered us with great food (photo by A-Lan)

We had booked 3 beds in a dormitory (didn’t sound too exciting…) but it turns out that we have rented a whole house! Even a semi-traditional one, that is half-buried under the ground to better fend off typhoons and to help keep it a bit cooler. The inside is decorated with typical Lanyu designs in white, red and black, and it is really cute!

Last night we passed a village where a lot of men were standing by the water with long spears, we thought they were going fishing, but it turns out that someone had passed away and in the Yami belief when someone pass away the soul will become a demon spirit. The demon might attract other demon spirits as well and attack and possess humans. They apparently often come from the ocean, so the men were standing guard, trying to scare off the demons. A column of armed men came as reinforcements, some of them wearing the traditional hats and amours made of wood. We were told not to go too close as the Yami have gotten a bit tired of Taiwanese tourists and their cameras, but most importantly we were totally unprotected and therefore easy targets for the demons – later we were picked up by our host after having dinner, as it would be too dangerous to walk back in the dark! Almost all the Yami people have been converted to Christianity, but most of them rarely go to church and their old traditions and beliefs are still practiced.

Lanyu is famous for its elaborately decorated canoes; they are built of 27 different kinds of wood. Fathers take their sons to the mountains to point out the different kinds of trees that are used for the different parts of the boats. The canoes are said to be built without nails, which is quite a feat, especially when you witness the powerful, crashing waves that the canoes must brave. The canoes come in all kinds of sizes and are used to catch the flying fish, which are a delicacy here on Lanyu.

We have rented scooters and explored a bit of Lanyu. It is a really beautiful island with lots of black rock formations, green hills and a fierce blue/turquoise ocean visible at all times. We went to a place right by the sea that had little pools with cold water springs. There we had a nice swim in the calm water looking out over the wild waves crashing onto the shore. The people here on Lanyu are really friendly, and we have had good chats (mostly through our friend Yulun, unfortunately not many people here speak any English) but warm smiles require no language and we have had plenty of those!

If you are planning on going to Lanyu consider staying with A-Lan at his Lanyu Guesthouse, it costs around 500 taiwanese dollars per person and it fits 8 people max. If you go for example only 3 people he won’t put any one else in the house while you are there. His phone number is: 732 891 and he has a website (only in mandarin but with lots of awesome pictures, A-Lan is quite a photographer) http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/ivalino100/ A-Lan’s brother; A-Wen rents out scooters for 400-500 taiwanese dollars per 24 hours, he also runs an interesting place at the harbor with artsy postcards, homemade (really cute) t-shirts and other souvenirs. They are both great guys, and you would be in very good company hanging out with them! At night half of the village gathers in the “supermarket” which is also run by A-wen, the ‘supermarket” sells cold drinks, snacks and noodles. A-Lan is in the process of building a new guesthose that will have a great view out over the ocean, he thinks it will be done in a year or so.

Taiwan Roadtrip #2

2009-09-13 00:00:00

This morning we left the camping site at Loshan and drove north on Highway 9, the scenery was beautiful and green. This is prime land for farming and we saw all kinds of vegetable being grown on the fields as well as many, many green rice fields. We stopped at a small vegetable shop and bought potatoes, carrots, asparagus, tomatoes, a mango and a pineapple. The ladies in the shop looked slightly surprised to see us, but as all other Taiwanese we have met so far they were smiling and friendly - they tried to speak mandarin to us, but they didn’t get very far with that… :-)

Our first stop of the day was the small village of Lintianshan; it used to be a logging village founded by the Japanese with about 2000 inhabitants. All the houses are made of wood and lies side by side, it all looked a bit in need of a lick of paint, but it was also quite charming and fun to go exploring in the little streets. Most of the houses seemed to still be inhabited.
Right next to the village was a river with the most incredible colored water; an icy light blue. We tried to find a spot to go down to the river, and after a bit of a wander through some high grass we got down there and had a nice refreshing swim.

After that we headed a bit off Highway 9 to take a little detour up Highway 14. These “highways” would at home not be categorized as highways! Highway 14 was so narrow it was more like a backcountry road, it winds its way through a rugged, marble-walled gorge and in and out of a couple of tunnels. It felt like a real adventure driving it! At the bottom of the canyon there is a river with deep bluish-green water, it runs through little rapids creating miniature waterfalls and into natural swimming holes with little fish swimming around in the crystal clear water. We descended from the road and jumped in, there was nobody else there and it was like a little piece of paradise! The water was fresh and cool, very refreshing in the 36 degrees summer heat.

We have now set up camp again, cooked all the vegetables we bought this morning for dinner, for dessert we ate the mango and the pineapple – it was the juiciest mango ever, and so soft and smooth we could have spread it on a piece of bread as if it was butter! The pineapple was sweet and juicy as well – heaven!

Taiwan Roadtrip #1

2009-09-07 00:00:00

We started out our Taiwan Roadtrip with a traintrip – a morning train from busy Taipei to the south eastern city of Taitung. Here we picked up our rental car, a cute little Nissan March (at home called Micra) and set out for Taitung Hongye Hot Springs, after getting a little bit lost in the beautiful, tall, green mountains we found it; it was closed. We went in anyway to take a look: It turned out half the place was buried in mud! The typhoon that had raged havoc over southern Taiwan just before we arrived had apparently passed by here. A tiny bit disappointed but mostly just shocked to see those buildings half buried, we drove on.
We headed for Loshan instead, where we checked into the free campsite. Yup completely free! Our little site came with a wooden platform, a bench/table and a parking lot for the car, other facilities included toilets (with toilet paper and soap) and showers and a cooking unit with sinks and light. We happily settled in!

Next morning we got up early and set off for the 120m high waterfall nearby. We walked around the forest area and found a nice viewing platform, from where there were beautiful views of the waterfall. The trail went by the same river, which was created by the waterfall, and we spotted a place where the river had formed a nice little pool. Being rather hot, we quickly jumped in and splashed around in the cool waters.

Not so far from the falls a sign marked a place where gas and mud leaked from underground, forming a small mud-volcano. It wasn’t much, but it was fun to see how the mud bubbled and the gas escaped. Apparently the gas can be used for burning, but we couldn’t find anything to help light fire to the bubbles. The aboriginals know how to harvest the gas and were probably some of the first people to use natural gas.

Then we headed to Sixty Stone Mountain; an area known for growing day-lilies. These orange flowers are used in cooking; dried, pickled or raw. The winding road to the top gave good views of the surrounding areas, and soon the hillsides were covered in orange and green. The flower fields were absolutely beautiful, and the mountain backdrop didn’t scar the eye either. Our little car braved the steep roads without any complaints. The area was so picturesque, that it could easily be the scene for the next Hobbiton.

Our last itinerary for the day was the Walami trail; a trail going deep into the mountains. We had just planned to walk for the first part of it, but again the Typhoon cheated us. The trail had been closed, as it had been too damaged by the winds and mostly the torrential rains. Luckily we could still get to the Nanan waterfall, which lies just before the trailhead. Again it was a beautiful setting and again we soon jumped into the clear, cool waters and took a swim, together with a few adventurous Taiwanese people. Martin went underneath the actual fall and got himself a hard shoulder massage – just what was needed after a lot of driving.

Bottle Beach on Ko Phanang

2009-08-14 00:00:00

Bottle Beach, in Thai known as Haad Khuad, is a beach on the north of Ko Pha Ngan, Thailand. It lies in a protected cove with no road access, so we had to take a boat there from one of the nearby beaches. We got a shared boat for 100bath a person. The seclusion of this place means that it feels a million miles from the notorious Had Rin and its Full Moon Party. Bottle Beach has developed from a little known traveler hide-away into a very popular backpacker beach with plenty of people having a beer or a bucket at night in one of the cozy little restaurants where you sit on cushions on the floor. The beach is beautiful and the accommodation, most of it fairly priced (bungalows start at 250bath) is good. We stayed at “Smile” for 350bath a night. The long sweeping sand beach is quite lovely, particularly in early morning and late afternoon when the bulk of the day-trippers have left. However my favorite thing about Bottle Beach was the look-out point, from the most eastern end of the beach you start a steep climb up a forested hill, after a little while you reach a little house where you pay 20bath per person and you can then keep on climbing. We encountered many small lizard-like animals and we also saw a long yellow snake. The climb up is a bit though – so we were happy we had brought water and didn’t wear flip-flops ! The reward once we reached the top after about 40 minutes was well worth it though! We had an amazing view down Bottle Beach and the ocean and there was a nice breeze at the top to cool us down a bit :-)

The Gibbon Experience

2009-08-14 00:00:00

The people behind The Gibbon Experience in Chang Mai with their 2km of zip lines has now build a new site in Chonburi, situated just 1 hour outside of Bangkok and 50 minutes from Pattaya Beach at Khao Kheeo, Chonburi, this beautiful forest site offers easy and convenient access from both destinations.

The new site in Chonburi features Thailand’s longest zip-line at over 300 meters! The entire course is over 3 kilometers in length and has 26 platforms.
They had a deal that if you booked online and took the early departure at 06.00 you would get a discount – and the whole rainforest to yourself it turned out!
We got rigged up with harnesses and very flattering orange helmets and we were on our way, after a short trek we could get started and soon we were flying through the tree tops! I am not scared of heights at all, and the equipment was safe and very secure, and the guides were extremely focused and consistent with regards to safety so there was nothing to worry about and I was free to enjoy the views from the very first zip, and was the views amazing! I have never seen a forest from above before and I really recommend it.

A few tree-top houses and hanging bridges along the way keep it interesting. There are three or so drops throughout the course which keeps things interesting. The last drop is 60+ meters down. For major fun ask to be attached by your back instead of your front. It’s much more exciting that way. At the end a delicious meal awaits at the office/meeting platform in the forest.

Jungle Trekking in Tangkoko

2009-05-22 00:00:00

After the complete relaxation of Pulau Siladen, we headed to the extreme north-eastern tip of Sulawesi and the natural reserve of Tangkoko National Park. Getting here was an experience in itself, as busses and bemos (minibuses) do not go out here – instead we got a lift with a pickup truck, which is the main transportation form in the area. Sitting in the back and blazing through the amazing landscape on small roads were thrilling, yet we feared for heavy rains, as black clouds were rolling in from the sea. Luckily we got to the park entrance, and the small guesthouses located there, dry and safe.
A short rest later we located the tourist information shed (not the official one, as they were all boarded up) and arranged a guide for the next day – the friendly owner told us a bit about the area and suggested that we headed to the village beach for a glimpse into the lives of the “people of the sea” as he called the fishermen. It was a beautiful setting; a black sand beach (but a nice one) backed by green palm trees, crashing waves, colorful fishing boats in the water and children swimming and playing in the surf. We trudged up along the beach and were warmly greeted by the locals, and were instantly “Hello Mister”-ed. Boats were being built, set into the waters and were coming ashore with the catches of the day – navigating through the surf looked dangerous, but with skills and much practice the fishermen knew exactly when to start going in, rowing furiously when a big wave reached them, and were then carried all the way onto the beach.

The next morning we started out at 5:30. With the sun still not up, it was a bit difficult to get out of bed, but morning time is the best time to see animals (and not so steaming hot as midday), so we forced ourselves to it. Covering our entire body in mosquito repellent (yes, the one with enough DEET to actually work), taking on two layers of socks and tucking our pants into them, we prepared to be attacked by the resident mites of the forest. Apparently they bite and lay eggs under your skin, which will leave a severely itching rash lasting for days – not something we felt like being subjected to. Ready we set out with our guide and co-guide into the forest. The day quickly dawned with birds singing and the light slowly returning, gleaming through the thick foliage. At first we wandered around listening to it all, but were soon captivated by strange “woosh, woosh” sounds; two hornbills. The giant birds flew just above the trees and landed high in the canopy, but with quite some skill our guide spotted them and through binoculars they were clearly visible high above our heads. It is a remarkable bird, huge and with the characteristic large beak with a “horn” on top. It was very difficult to take a decent photo, even with our old but 10x zoom camera; the light wasn’t good enough. A short while later the birds flew off; in search of figs probably.

After walking some more, we came to an old dead tree, which were now only a high stem with no branches. High up hundreds of birds had made a colony in the stem, building their nests/burrows in the tree. It was a busy time, with small birds flapping about all over. Soon we got distracted though – suddenly three big black monkeys wandered just past us. About a meter tall when walking, they resembled chimps quite a lot – but with all black heads and somewhat slimmer features. They are known as Black Macaques and are endemic to Sulawesi. The three monkeys were on a food hunt and weren’t the least bit interested or scared of us, luckily their group wasn’t far away and we easily found them. Sitting in the trees, the forest floor or swinging in the branches, they were quite active. Again there wasn’t much interest taken in us, so we could just sit and watch the show. Again it was hard to take decent photos, but we managed to snap a few when the light and monkeys were cooperating.

Many trees in the park gets “attacked” by lianas, strangler figs and other growth that live on the trees. Sometimes they live in harmony, sometimes the attackers eventually kill their host; our next stop was an instant of the latter. Where once a mighty tree had stood now only the lianas and other stranglers were left, creating what looked like a tree, but upon closer examination was completely hollow. It consisted only of a thick intertwined web of growth, which reached far into the canopy and was at least a meter and a half in diameter. It was perfect for climbing; we didn’t dare go up more than 10-15 meters or so, but it was a fantastic experience climbing “inside” a tree. Through the growth you could look out into the foliage and onto the forest floor below.

Just before midday break, we came upon a very tall tree, which was a favorite hangout for an animal neither of us has ever heard of. It is a mixture of a koala and a tree kangaroo with a hint of monkey too – a true mix between the Australian and the Asian wildlife. This animal, which also only can be found on Sulawesi, is called a Cus-cus. We saw a group of 5 or so, but they were sleeping high, high up in the tree top. Even though we could only get glimpses of them through the binoculars, it was amazing to experience this elusive animal, that we didn’t even knew existed before we were staring at it. Nature is truly fantastic, so rich and diverse, yet complex and ever surprising.

We couldn't get a clear shot of the Cus-cus,
so we borrowed this photo.

At around 11 we had a good long break on the beach, which is also a part of the Tangkoko National Park. It was a beautiful mix of pitch dark sand and gleaming white coral washed up with the waves. The water was nice and blue and the beach clean, so we jumped in wearing most of our clothes, as we hadn’t brought swimsuits – it was refreshing with a swim after the long walk. Our guides went back to our guesthouse and picked up lunch, which was brought to us at the beach, and we hungrily wolfed down the Mie Bungkus (noodles to-go). Sitting on the beach hearing the waves crash against the sand and the scurrying sound of coral pieces being washed up, was a nice a tranquil relax. Giant butterfly in the most striking colors were fluttering about, and in a few moments of searching the corals we found 4 “tiger-eye” fossils, which are quite something in India anyway. After that it was time for a short nap ;-)

In the afternoon we headed into the forest again – the Cus-cus were unfortunately still sleeping, so we went on to find the main attraction of Tangkoko National Park, Tarsiers. These nocturnal fuzzy balls have huge funny looking eyes and are only 12-14 centimeters long, but have very long hind legs and a rat like tail. We had caught some crickets to feed the Tarsiers, so that they (the family we were “visting”) would come out from their nest in a big hallow tree. The crickets were surprisingly willing victims, simply sitting still when placed on the opening to the tree. Looking in we could just make out a few Tarsiers in the dark, but when they spotted the yummy cricket snack, they showed themselves. They were extremely quick, jumping from inside the dark to the hole, snatched the cricket and the jumped back into safety. We had the camera ready, and clicked away when we saw the Tarsier coming, but often it was simply too fast for us, and the picture came out empty. Cute, but again elusive, little animal indeed!

Dusk was upon us so we headed home with tired feet; on the way back we heard strange sound, it sounded like a woodpecker – but in fact it was a woodcutter. Illegally cutting down some smaller trees, he was long gone when we reached the place where he had been working. As with many of the primary forests of the world and indeed Indonesia, sadly illegal logging is commonplace here too.
This was the last entry from Sulawesi, an island that really surprised us with diverse attractions and friendly people. We were greeted with smiles and warmth everywhere and it isn’t hard to understand why this island was once a major tourist destination – maybe it will be again, it certainly deserves some attention.

Pulau Siladen

2009-05-16 00:00:00

After 3 days at Bunaken Island we sailed to Siladen Island, a small island approximately 30 min away in boat. Tante Martha from Tante Martha’s Homestay welcomed us with open arms as soon as we stepped off the boat, I think she was pretty excited to have some guests, especially when she found out I spoke Indonesian – lots of island gossip ensued :-)
The beach on Siladen is beautiful, it beats anything Bunaken could offer. Right outside our hut was the beautiful clear ocean, this spot was also sometimes the local kids playground. It was entertaining seeing them playing and fooling around on the beach, homemade boats out of flamingo were set to sea and of course there was a lot of splashing around - the simple pleasures of being an island kid! The funniest thing they did were on land running competitions, while still wearing wearing diving flippers!
When walking a little further down the beach you got to the “Siladen Spa” which is a fancy up market resort, here we shamelessly used their beach – it was completely empty.

Picture of the beach Every day we went snorkeling, there was a drop-off approximately 100 meters from the beach, there was a lot of beautiful coral and the reef was teeming with fish – in all shapes, sizes and colors. We saw a loads of reef fish, most of them I don’t even know the names off, but amongst others there were banner fish, puffer fish, clown fish, trigger fish, parrot fish and many, many others. One day we saw a big turtle and another we were lucky enough to see a long, black and white sea snake, it was fascinating to see it snake its way through the water.

Sea snake

Shell collection

Pulau Bunaken

2009-05-16 00:00:00

Upon leaving Rantepao and the land of Tana Toraja a very l o n g journey ensued. We boarded a night bus at 9 in the evening and bumped along all night long, it was a luxury bus and we sat pretty comfortably but the air-con was on way too high and we were freezing! At 4 in the morning we reached the airport in Makassar, now we had to wait until 12.25 for our flight, and Makassar airport is not the most interesting airport in the world... Finally almost 9 hours later we flew towards Manado in the most northerly part of Sulawesi. Manado airport was of course mayhem, with crazy taxi drivers completely overcharging for the ride into town, just what we needed at this point. It was now 14.30 and a boat to Bunaken Island, our final destination, was scheduled to leave at 15.00 from the harbor. We pleaded with the taxi driver to hurry, but still it was 15.30 before we reached the harbor. After fighting off a bunch of guys trying to get us to charter a boat to Bunaken, one of them was kind enough to take us to where the public boat leaves from – and yeah!!! It was still there just about to leave!!! It was packed to the rafters with women, kids and lots of goods, but we managed to squeeze in and found a place to sit. The women on the boat were nice and I ended up sitting next to a 10 year old girl, we chatted a bit and she ended up singing Indonesian songs for me all the way to the island, she was such a sweetie. What a nice ending to a very, very long journey.

The Main Street on Bunaken Island.

After staggering around on the island for a bit we found a place to stay, a small bungalow on the beach. There are 6 bungalows here, but we are the only guests so it is so nice and quiet. The price of the bungalow includes 3 meals a day, which is lucky because there aren’t really any restaurants here. All the meals, except breakfast, are fish, rice and some vegetables, simple but tasty.

The beach here is kind of like a lagoon, with mangrove forest right off the beach; at high tide it is great for swimming. At low tide the mangrove is exposed and you can walk out and explore, we saw loads of starfish.

One the other side of the island, an hours walk away is another beach, Pantai Liang, it is beautiful with clear turquoise water. But on the beach itself a lot of driftwood and trash washes up from Manado and too much construction is going on right by the water; too bad as it could have been a perfect paradise beach.

We hired a local fisherman to take us out snorkeling for half a day – some of the better reefs are a little off-shore so it was nice to have a boat nearby. We drifted slowly with the current along the reef drop-off

Graves and skulls in Tana Toraja

2009-05-13 00:00:00

A 9 hour bus trip from Makassar brought us to Rantepao, a smallish city in the heartland of Tana Toraja, it was quite cool and for the first time in a very long time were we wearing closed shoes! Jeans and a light sweater were comfy in the chilly evenings.
Tana Toraja is a bit of a cultural island hemmed in by mountains on all sides. The indigenous culture is all about the dead, funerals and graves! Kind of macabre, but also very interesting. The scenery with its many greener than green rice fields reminded us of Bali, and the traditional house of the architectural style of the Bataks in Sumatra. But the cave graves, hanging graves, life size dolls of the deceased and the omnipresent buffalo were something completely new to us, but as we were to experience quintessential to Tana Toraja.

Offroading

We rented a motorbike so we could drive into the countryside and see the sights by our selves, as we didn’t want to be stuck with one of the many stupid “guides” who hung around everywhere in town and constantly asking you if you need “information” aka their services.
The motorbike had gears, as automatic bikes wasn’t available; it was the first time Martin had ridden a non-automatic, but after a little practice everything went smoothly. We set out on the narrow but pretty empty roads and headed for the hills. After many hairpin turns and potholed tarmac we reached the small town of Batutomonga where we had lunch with the most beautiful view over the valleys below. After lunch we asked around for the path to the small town of Pana, which according to the Lonely Planet guidebook should be a good hiking trail, and Pana should have more graves cut into the cliff face. After asking a couple of groups, we were told we could ride the motorbike all the way down to Pana, and from there take a shortcut back to Rantepao; the path would be bumpy but passable on a bike we were told. And bumpy it was! Our small motorbike braved the stony trail, and only at the steepest point did I jump of and sent Martin and the bike forward alone, as it didn’t have very high clearance it easily scrapped the bottom on the rocks when we both sat on it. It was certainly off-road driving, but the scenery was magnificent and lazy as we are, it was a lot quicker and nicer to bump along on a motorbike than should we have walked all the way ourselves. In Pana we stopped to search for the graves; at first we were mislead a bit by a sign, but a gang of children came running and showed us the way. At first the children were a bit naughty and uncontrollable as they often are in groups, but when I started talking to them in Indonesian, they soon quieted down and where a really nice bunch. We signed the guestbook and off we were, the 2 of us and 7 kids. With much “Hati hati Tante Lily” (“Careful Aunt Lily”), we climbed some steep slippery steps and soon we were at the graves. The oldest of the children, a girl about 9, was an excellent guide, talking and talking in Indonesian, sometimes a bit too fast for me to understand everything though :-)

Buffaloes are a status symbol for the Toraja people, and are of paramount importance in many traditional ceremonies. The buffalo has traditionally been a symbol of wealth and power – even land could be bought with buffaloes. Sought-after albino buffaloes can change hands for more than US$8000.

One of the most noticeable aspects of the Torajan culture is the size and grandeur of their traditional houses, called tongkonan. It is the meeting place for the family; even families who have a “normal” modern-style house will often have one of these traditional houses too. Everywhere we went we saw the magnificent houses everywhere.
The towering roof, rearing up at both ends, is the most striking about the tongkonan, some believe the roof represent the horns of a buffalo, while others suggest it represents the bow and stern of a boat. On the front of the house a row of buffalo horns a displayed, the more horns the higher the household’s status.

The Torajas despite now being Christian still maintain many aspects of their previous traditional culture, they believe that you can take possessions with you in the after-life, and the death generally go well equipped to their graves. Since this led to grave being plundered the Torajans started to hide their dead in caves. These caves were hollowed out by specialist cave builders, and often built high up on cliff faces to make them as inaccessible as possible. The coffins go deep inside the caves, and sitting on balconies in the rock face in front of the caves are life size wooden dolls, “copies” of the dead. These are called tau-tau and they sure would be enough to scare me from trying to rob any graves near them!

All this emphasis on the dead and graves could be a little unnerving but out in the open on a sunshiny day it wasn’t so bad. It wasn’t until we got to the Londa cave grave it got really freaky! It is a very extensive burial cave at the base of a massive cliff face, we climbed up many sets of stairs passing hanging graves; hung up high on the cliff face the bottoms of the coffins were starting to rot away and we could look up and get a glimpse of bones… One places a bunch of skulls were piled up in a heap, a lot of cigarettes had been offered to these skulls, some even stuck out through the nose holes. At the top the entrance to the burial cave is guarded by a balcony full of the most life like tau-tau dolls we saw. It was completely dark inside the cave but we had a flashlight each and ventured in. It was kind of muggy and humid inside and the stones were slippery from the water dripping off the stalagmites. As we got deeper in we started to see the graves, it was a little scary to suddenly shine your torch on an open casket filled with bones! As we kept going in further the cave started narrowing in, still coffins, bones and skulls lying around the place. At one point in noticed a huge spider, about the size of an open palm, on the wall right next to me. That was it for my grave lurking expedition! I made for the exit while Martin hung around inside a bit longer. While waiting for him outside the cave I amused the some Indonesian tourist by posing for pictures with them.

Discovering Celebes

2009-05-07 00:00:00

Our flight from Denpasar to Makassar, Sulawesi went fine, it was an hour late but at least it showed up! We were a tad apprehensive about Indonesian airlines and the frequency with which they cancel their flights after our trip to Flores.

Our hotel, Pondok Suada Indah, is according to Lonely Planet the closest you get to a boutique hotel in Makassar, and it is kinda cute, with a slight air of times gone by. This was to be our base from which to explore the city.
We started the day with “nasi goreng” (fried rice with egg) for breakfast, and soon we were on our way to Fort Rotterdam, which is one of the best-preserved examples of Dutch architecture in Indonesia. A Gowanese (The Kingdom of Gowa) fort dating back to 1545 once stood here, first built in clay and later on upgraded to stone. Still it couldn’t keep out the Dutch, and their cannon balls, who took over the fort and rebuilt it in Dutch style in 1667.
It really was a nice place to walk around, the gardens around the buildings were nicely laid out with palm trees and pink flowers, the Dutch architectural style reminded us of Danish buildings from that period, but the baking sun, the lush palm trees and the Indonesian flag waving in the hot air above still made the place seem pretty exotic.

Later we found a becak (a bicycle taxi) to take us to a harbor (Pelabuhan Paotere) where a lot of Bugis ships laid anchored. The Bugis are a people of seafarers, they are Muslim and renowned as excellent seamen and boat builders. To such an extent that in the colonial days these majestic wooden ships were feared by European spice traders, who were often attacked by Bugis pirates - earning the Bugis a prominent place in folklore: "boogeymen".
The harbor was great, it was mid-day by now and the harsh sunlight gave the whole place an almost surreal atmosphere, the dock was made of the thickest wooden planks, I’m sure some millionaire would kill to have it put in as floorboards in his mansion. It was HOT and the people were minding their own business, but a few did notice us, smiled and waved. We are definitely in “Hello Mister” land now, so many kids (and adults!) has been very enthusiastically waving and shouting “Hello Mister” after us on the streets. It is endearing in a way that people get that excited over seeing two pale tourists especially considering that historically “the white man” has never been very kind to Indonesia.

Tomorrow morning at 10 we are gonna embark on an 8 hour bus ride into the interior of Sulawesi to the famous Tana Toraja.

Birthday Celebrations

2009-04-21 00:00:00

It was Election Day and everybody had the day off (yes, it is a holiday in Indonesia). So we decided to go to “Water Bom Park” in Kuta with some friends. We were almost put off by the steep entrance fee (23 USD!), but we went in anyway.

It is a fun place to spend a day, with lots of different kinds of slides with names like “Smash Down” and “Boomerang” you know you are in for a fun ride!
We left when the park closed to go to surprise Nicolai, who had just returned from Komodo together with Anders. Yulun had bought cute little birthday hats, so we all looked quite festive when Nicolai opened the door to their hotel room. We sang Happy Birthday and soon sat drinking beers and eating chips at the pool.
Later we went out to get some food; on the way we got greeted by almost everyone who passed us with shouts of “Happy Birtday!” or even a Happy Birthday song. Nicolai felt very prized, and with beer in hand and good friends around, we were all in high spirits. We found a small restaurant, were we noisily sat down to eat – I think it was good that it was a small and simple place, mostly catering to surfers and the like, ‘cos we were loud and sang Danish birthday songs, which involved drumming on the table and other noisy stuff. Food wasn’t great, but at that point it didn’t matter much, cheap Bintangs and good company were all that mattered...

At some point while eating Zack, a friend of Olivias, came by. We invited him to join us, which he accepted. For some reason he had acquired a somewhat special skill: the art of making balloon animals. Shortly after hearing that Nicolai was the birthday boy, Zack had skillfully twisted and turned two colorful balloons into a cool biker! Also a weird, but very festive looking balloon hat was placed on Nicolai’s head, so that everyone could see who the center of attention was.

We continued to a small bar, were we crammed ourselves down in a small bed-like sofa; Nicolai, who got quite smitten by the good looking waitress, soon ordered a “Quick Fuck”. It was only a naughty drink though, but after being served Nicolai was sure that the waitress had come on to him – well, she was flirtatious, but as many placed in Asia and indeed the world, that is simply part of any bar-girls job. Nicolai was a little disappointed when we told him that, but took it with good spirit and kept on ordering “Quick Fucks”. We got delicious Arak drinks and Mojitos, which elevated our moods further, and soon we were off to the clubs.

We went to the infamous Bounty Club; a place known for cheap drinks and many, many Australians. Luckily the latter wasn’t as omnipresent as sometimes, but that certainly didn’t mean it wasn’t happening. Getting big colorful drinks for pennies we headed to the dancefloor and had a great night dancing, drinking and making fun on the podium. We continued on to MBargo later, where Zack once again met us, and once again produced some balloon “art”. We got balloon swords all of us – starting a big sword-fight on the dancefloor. Still with our festive hats on, we almost looked like musketeers...though a somewhat silly kind.
We returned home in the small hours and slept in; hangovers are very common when drinking Arak, and we had had quite a lot of it!

Temple Bliss

2009-04-21 00:00:00

Tanah Lot is one of those places that are so incredible that it is highly revered by tourist and locals alike, for the faithful Hindus it is a source of strength and power, and considered a very safe place; it is unimaginable that anything bad could happen at Tanah Lot. The Balinese belief in life beyond the physical and they holds sacred the basic elements of the sun, the earth, the sea, all of which are converged in this temple.
We rounded up 2 of our friends (Yulun and Nicolai) and left Denpasar on our motor bikes, it was a beautiful ride through rice fields and down smaller roads with peeks into Balinese village life, the only bad thing was the sky – the clouds seemed only to become darker and darker as we sped along towards the picture perfect temple. We choose this particular day to visit Tanah Lot as it was Odalan (temple anniversary, like the temple’s birthday) and we knew half of Bali would be out praying at this particular temple.

Literally meaning land (tanah) and sea (lot), the temple sits on a rocky islet separated from the mainland by the sea. The temple directly faces the west, and as a “sunset” temple, its silhouette against the Indian Ocean is world-famous. This brilliant location makes it the most photographed temple in all of Bali. Of course we joined in and clicked away. By now the sky was looking really vicious.

The rock the temple is standing on looks like it has been whittled into its current craggy shape by the strong wind and surf, and that is also what initially happened, but the Indian Ocean was too strong for the rock, and the whole thing was practically crumbling. Luckily Japanese money came to the rescue (Japan does a lot of reconstruction work out here) and the rock has been artificially reconstructed.

The temple is easily accessible during low tide although crossings during high water are common, especially during temple anniversaries or important ceremonies, as we personally were to witness and experience. During high tide there was a little boat to ferry people back and forth in, but as the tide began to go out it got too shallow for the boat. The water was still waist high though, but people couldn’t wait, the smaller kids were hoisted up on dad’s shoulders, the big boxes with offerings in them were placed high on Mom’s head and everybody’s sarongs were hiked up to right under the buttocks. It was a great big circus and of course we had to join in, we almost made it over, still relatively dry, then a big wave came splashing us completely! The whole atmosphere just made us laugh it off, and it was so hot, we were dry again in no time. Also by now the sky was starting to look up.

We ended our day at Tanah Lot with drinks at a little restaurant with a view of the temple, it sure is a beautiful place, and we had a great day. And as all the Balinese told us, nothing bad ever happen at Tanah Lot, and true to the form, our greatest fear – the rain never came.

Time for the Festive Season

2009-04-07 00:00:00

During the month of March Bali comes alive with festivities as the Balinese celebrate the holidays of Galungan, Nyepi (Balinese New Year) and Kuningan. Galungan occurs every 210 days and lasts for 10 days. Kuningan is the last day of this holiday. Galungan means "When the Dharma is winning." During this holiday the Balinese gods visit the Earth and then they leave again on Kuningan.
Galungan marks the beginning of the most important recurring religious ceremony that is celebrated by all Balinese. During the Galungan period the deified ancestors of the family descend to their former homes. They must be suitably entertained and welcomed, and prayers and offerings must be made for them. The owner of the house we have rented called because they wished to come and pray in the house, it turned out eventually that they couldn’t come. But we tried our best ourselves and bought offerings to place in the house temples and at the entrance to the house, we don’t want angry ghost running around all over the place! :-)
Although Galungan falls on a Wednesday, most Balinese will begin their Galungan 'holiday' the day before, where the family is seen to be busily preparing offerings and cooking for the next day. The women of the household have been busy for days before creating beautifully woven 'banten' (offerings made from young coconut fronds). A long bamboo pole, or 'penjor', is made to decorate the entrance to the family compound. By late Tuesday afternoon all over Bali the visitor can see these decorative poles creating a very festive atmosphere in the street.

On Wednesday, the day of Galungan, one will find that most Balinese will try to return to their own ancestral home at some stage during the day, even if they work in another part of the island. This is a very special day for families, where offerings are made to God and to the family ancestors who have come back to rest at this time in their family temple. As well as the family temple, visits are made to the village temple with offerings as well, and to the homes of other families who may have helped the family in some way over the past six months.
The day after Galungan is a time for a vacation day, visiting friends, maybe taking the opportunity to head for the mountains for a picnic. Everyone still seems to be in their 'Sunday best' as they take to the streets to enjoy the festive spirit that Galungan brings to Bali.
Between Galungan and Kuningan many ceremonies and festivals are held, which we enjoyed to the fullest. The first event is the Melasti Ceremoni, where holy images and symbols from every temple are paraded to the nearest beach or river. Here the symbols are bathed in water so as to cleanse them and prepare them for the festive times ahead. Big processions of worshippers block the street while walking the sometimes many kilometer journey from temple to sea. Colorful umbrellas, beautiful kebayas, loud drumming music and a cheerful spirit make the spectacle a joyful sight. We were lucky enough to bump in to one of these processions on our way home from the airport (coming home from Flores a day to late, and thereby missing the bathing action at the beaches), and when we jumped of the motorbike to take a few pictures, young and old were smiling, laughing and acting out (the latter mostly the young) for us to take a picture of them. Jumping on the motorbike again, we were headed the same way as the procession, but were forced to drive in walking speed for quite a while (together with a lot of other traffic), because the procession was taken up the entire road – only when they turned into a small street leading to the nearby temple, was the traffic again able to flow. It is so great that there is plenty of time for stuff like that here in Bali, no one minded that they had to wait behind the procession for 15 minutes, we are really enjoying the relaxed attitude down here – it is contagious.

Two days after the Melasti ceremony another important ceremony was held at Puputan square in Denpasar (Tawur Agung Kesanga). Being a ceremony dedicated to nature instead of to the gods, it is held on the square (which is rather a park) instead of on temple grounds. Offerings of the usual Balinese kinds were made in huge numbers and praying and blessings were made and given. We were again invited to pray with the locals and sat down in the merciless midday sun – we got to sweat a lot, as the praying took a lot longer than we had experienced before. Again it was the feeling of being welcomed and included, together with the air of holiness but cheerfulness, that made another great day. We met a really nice journalist/teacher who was doing a piece on the development of fashion in traditional clothes. We had before talked about this very subject ourselves, as it is evident that the Balinese give tremendous fashion statements when dressing up for ceremonies. Young women dress hip and somewhat sexy, wearing their sarongs in different stylish ways and having the latest trend in kebayas. Especially see-through lace-like fabrics in bright colors are the latest hit, using only a tight corset-like top underneath it can look rather revealing, yet elegant and very beautiful. (The see-through fabrics are apparently not actually allowed, but fashion seems to have overruled this traditional restriction.) Guys wear their sarongs knee length and often they sport sunglasses and cool shirts instead of a plain white one. Despite the trends everything looks so traditional for the first time visitor, but when looking closer (and dressing up in the traditional outfits yourself) you can easily see that there is more that meets the eye.

Left: Praying in the relentless sun at Pupetan square
Right: Girls in kebayas

In the evening, on the same day as the Pupetan Square ceremony, which is also the evening before Nyepi (more on that later), it is tradition to have huge parades with dance, music and general merrymaking. The most fascinating part however is the Ogoh-ogohs. Ogoh Ogoh monsters are colourful monster sculptures, which are made from bamboo frames and paper mache. They are made in the form of creatures of the underworld known in Balinese as buta-kala. The creatures are based on characters taken from traditional myths and legends, however in modern times many also take the form of modern characters, including even people in the media or in the government. They are mainly built by the youngsters of the villages and kampungs, but also by more professionals and even political parties. In the evening, all traffic is blocked and the Ogoh-Ogoh monsters are paraded around near the main intersections and finally burned in the evening to drive away evil spirits.
It’s almost like carnival processions in other countries. The kids can stay up long and carry ‘their’ Ogoh-Ogoh around. It’s like a beauty competition on who created the most colourful, funny or scary monster. Of course everyone is proud of their creation and the whole proceedings are very noisy and with plenty of drum sound and screaming and laughing.

Unfortunately the Ogoh-Ogoh tradition has been infiltrated by politics, where the political parties compete with each other in making the most splendid Ogoh-ogoh and thereby hoping to gain voters by showing of their skills. Because of the near coming general elections, Ogoh-Ogoh parades had been banned this year, with only one official and controlled one taking place in Kuta. Kuta was packed with children and adults waiting for the parade, but still everyone was behaving and the air was one of festivities. The parade started once dusk fell and dancers, musicians and children of all ages joined the parade, lifting their Ogoh-Ogohs high. The younger children looked so proud of their involvement in the parade, while the teenagers were fooling around and trying to look cool as could be expected. Many of the Ogoh-Ogohs looked very professional and had light and smoke installations, and even though we didn’t stay until the end of the parade, we were quite sure not all of them got burned. Picture opportunities were many, with the young women and men beautifully dressed up like kings, queens, demons and witches, the many Ogoh-Ogoh’s and the usual Balinese interest in being taken a picture of.

On our way home from Kuta we ran in to an unofficial and more impulsive looking Ogoh-ogoh parade, with many children, home-made looking monsters and less perfect costumes – the parade might look less impressive, but the originality and spirit was no less magnificent. A group of children were even carrying a fearsome looking Sponge-Bob Square-Pants Ogoh-Ogoh! We learned that many such small Ogoh-Ogoh parades had broken out all over Denpasar, and probably entire Bali, with the condolence of the local police and heads-of-villages. It was uplifting that the Balinese feel that it is their right to follow their traditions despite political issues and that such a joyful event continue anyway.

Nyepi is a Balinese "Day of Silence" that falls on Bali's Lunar New Year (March 26, 2009). The Balinese celebrate their New Year in a completely different manner than we do in the West. In Bali it is a day of silence, fasting, and meditation. Observed from 6 a.m. until 6 a.m. the next morning, Nyepi is a day reserved for self-reflection and as such, anything that might interfere with that purpose is restricted. The main restrictions are: no lighting fires (and lights must be kept low); no working; no entertainment or pleasure; no traveling; and for some, no talking or eating at all. The effect of these prohibitions is that Bali’s usually bustling streets and roads are empty, there is little or no noise from TVs and radios, and few signs of activity are seen even inside homes. The only people to be seen outdoors are the Pecalang, traditional security men who patrol the streets to ensure the prohibitions are being followed.
Although Nyepi is primarily a Hindu holiday, non-Hindu residents of Bali observe the day of silence as well, out of respect for their fellow citizens. Even tourists are not exempt; although free to do as they wish inside their hotels, no one is allowed onto the beaches or streets, and the only airport in Bali remains closed for the entire day. The only exceptions granted are for emergency vehicles carrying those with life-threatening conditions and women about to give birth.
We, as everyone else, were confined to our house for the entire day, but had stockpiled food, snacks and DVD movies to last us at least two days :-) As many others (especially the young and non-Hindus) we spend the day watching movies, reading a book, using our computer and relaxing. As non-Hindus we also do not have to keep all lights out and can cook using gas, as long as it is not clearly visible from the street and doesn’t make too much noise. Still it was kind of a long day, mostly because you were aware that leaving the house was not an option, making it so much more desirable.

A couple of days after Nyepi more ceremonies were held at the temple on Serangan Island. This temple is especially holy because it is the temple on Bali closest to neighboring Lembongan and Penida Island, which are thought to be the home of many evil spirits and black magic. The otherwise silent island was a bustle of worshippers, food stalls, small shops and other fairground items, with so many people coming to pray at the temple that we gave up on getting in there altogether. We walked around looking at the crowds, had dinner and were, as usual, looked at and smiled to; another great temple/fairground evening.

Visit to the Flower Island: Part 3

2009-03-29 00:00:00

After a couple of days of holiday in Labuan Bajo we rented a car to take us the seven hour trip east towards the tiny village of Werana and Olivia’s family home. It was a long and winding cardrive through the beautiful scenery of Flores. The Trans Flores Highway snakes its way through valleys and over mountains, and the narrow road, with just enough space for two cars to pass each other, is potholed and landslides are frequent, but are mostly small enough not to block the whole road.

We were royally welcomed with a warmth and friendliness you often only find in small villages and amongst people with “simpler” and less material lives. Olivias family home is inhabited by her parents, her oldest brother Eddie, his wife Ferni and one of the middle daughters, Lina, who had just miscarried, and were therefore spending some time at home together with her daughter Fianny (2 years old). Ferni and Eddie also had a daughter, Deltri (8 months old), with the cutest little worried looking face. Olivias’s oldest brother Johnny had come all the way from Sumba on Olivia’s request, as he is a great cook, and Olivia wanted us to get the best treatment possible – which we indeed were to get.

The family home wasn’t big; it consisted of two close lying buildings one of which was the kitchen, the other the living space, consisting of 5 small rooms; four bedrooms and a living room. We (Laerke and I, Yulun and Timo + Olivia) each got a small bedroom, and the rest of the family huddled together in the remaining rooms and kitchen (which had a bed as well) – we knew there would be no point in arguing; as guests we were first priority so there were no doubt in our lovely host family’s mind, that we of cause needed the prime accommodation.

Our days were spent talking and eating delicious, but as Johnny said himself, simple kampung food in the kitchen, peeling onions with Olivias father, singing songs with Timo or Eddie accompanying on guitar, and playing with the cute girls. Visit to the toilet or showering was a bit of an expedition, as the “toilet” was placed down the slope towards the ricepaddies – the shower, really just a stream of water, was further down the slope, right on the edge of the fields. It was so refreshing having the cold water cool you down, while having great views of the ricefields – unfortunately the path back up to the house was quite steep and slippery due to the rain, that you were often already sweating when finally back up at the house... well, it was great anyway.

Flores felt hot, really hot! Even though Werana was a bit up in the mountains, the relentless sun and still winds were really taking hard on us; used to a fan or sometimes even aircon, it was merciless not to be able to find a place to cool off for a bit. Luckily Ferni ordered us to give to her our laundry for washing, so even though we had packed light, we were always with clean clothes.

We also took trips to the surrounding countryside and the nearby towns and markets; it was great roaming around all the stalls, and we even got to visit Olivia’s fathers stall, where we attracted so much attention (yes, foreigners are not that common on these parts) that he got at least a few extra, curious customers. We got introduced to a fruit that, as many others, we have never seen back home – it was called a Markisa, and tasted delicious. It is best described as a passion-fruit with a hint of grape-like flavor; very yummy.
There was also time to visit the local and almost deserted beach and some very hot hotsprings, unfortunately it was so hot that it didn’t felt right to get even hotter and there were also a little too many spectators to enjoy it fully.

Two chickens and one pig had to go to animal heaven because of us; as mentioned earlier, we had to get the best, including food. Timo one day decided to buy a roaster for the family, as it is apparently tradition to bring one when visiting in-laws. He chose a great looking fellow, big, strong and beautiful - and also the most expensive one (7 dollars). He had high expectations for the roaster, dreaming of it as an alpha male, being the father to many small baby chickens and thus bringing Olivias family a steady supply of meat and eggs. But as soon as we got home and Timo turned his back, the roaster got its head chopped off, were soon plucked and ready to put in the pot. All this was unbeknown to Timo, who only found out the truth after dinner (yes, we had chicken soup!). He got a bit baffled, but wasn’t exactly crushed, though he kept raving about what a great future the roaster could have had. In the end we could not help laughing of Timos grand but broken visions; I was laughing so hard, that tears almost rolled down my cheeks - which pleased Olivias father, who seemed genuinely happy that his guests was having a really good time. The roaster met its creator a little before time, and we had a really fun night.

Hello and goodbye roaster!

It was hard to say goodbye to the family, but we were looking forward to getting back to our own beds, electricity, running water and some privacy. Even though we had a great time, the closeness of everything and everyone can be hard, when you are used to be able to go home, read a book and just be yourself. Privacy in the countryside is not considered a privilege; it is more seen as loneliness or unhappiness, thus everyone will always be together, and spending time alone is considered odd or they might think that you are sick or that something is wrong with you.

We took a car back to Labuan Bajo on Saturday, as our flight was leaving Sunday in the morning. Arriving in Labuan Bajo late in the evening we had a great dinner, but went straight to bed, exhausted by the 7 hour drive. The next morning we all got up and headed for the airport, a bit sad that we hadn’t had enough time in Labuan Bajo. We were waiting in the tiny airport (a house and a landing strip), and couldn’t understand why no one opened the small check-in both. After a while we started to ask around, and were told that “they didn’t think that a plane was leaving today”! 5 minutes after that, we received an SMS telling us that the plane was cancelled, and we should call and make new arrangements for the flight that would be leaving the next day. Cell-phone coverage on Flores is bad, which was why the SMS, which had been sent the day before, didn’t arrive until one hour before our scheduled departure…not very convenient. It wasn’t that bad though; we got confirmation that the staff of our airline would get us tickets for the flight the next day, and they would deliver the tickets to our hotel in the evening, after hassling them a bit, we also got our accommodation for the extra night covered.
We hurried back to the hotel, checked in again and went out for another day on the beach. Taking a small boat to Bidadari Island again, we enjoyed this extra day of vacation to the fullest. It seemed as just the perfect way of rounding off our trip to Flores.

In the evening we were met at the hotel by a staff from the airline, telling us that we would get the ticket by the morning instead…ok, no problem for us, as he insured us that they had transferred us to the morning flight. The next morning tickets still hadn’t arrived and we got a bit tense; soon after though, another member of the staff drove up to the hotel, and while looking down, so not to meet our eyes, he told us that the flight was cancelled again! At this point we were a bit shocked and got slightly frustrated – feelings that would become stronger during the day. Taking all our bags we left the hotel to go talk to the staff at the airline office; we really wanted to get back to Bali, as the Balinese New Year, and the festivals and ceremonies connected with it, was already starting.
After having to pull the staff at the airline office out from hiding in the back room, they could confirm that the flight was indeed cancelled and that the flight tomorrow was booked full – the day after that, they could maaaybe get some tickets! Who was to know if that flight wasn’t cancelled also though? We learned that a second plane, with another airline, was leaving in the afternoon, but again we were told it was fully booked. We decided to go to the airport anyway to make sure that the rather incompetent airline staff, who didn’t answer us when we asked what options we had, was indeed right and another plane was leaving. They were right; a similar small Fokker plane on the other airline was leaving in the afternoon, but the airline staff from this airline confirmed that the plane was fully booked. Now we didn’t have many options; either wait two more days and cross our fingers that that flight wouldn’t also be cancelled, or get on the plane leaving in the afternoon. There were a slim chance that someone wouldn’t show up, but getting 5 seats, on a fully booked flight with only 50 seats, seemed rather impossible. We demanded that our airline would buy us tickets to the flight if in any way possible and they agreed, sending a guy out to get money.
When passengers started arriving, we spread the word that we needed tickets and that we would buy tickets from anyone who had an extra one or simply didn’t want to fly anyway. We actually got one from a passenger whose friend was late and wouldn’t make it in time, but with only one ticket, four of us would still be stranded. We even considered taking the trip to Bali overland; a 36-48 hour journey on boats and in busses, not the most appealing option.
When all passengers had been checked in, we got the good news; 3 seats were empty! That brought us to a total of 4 seats, one short of getting us all home. The other passengers started boarding and the plane engines warming up. We persuaded the staff to go check the plane for an extra seat - any was good enough. The plane propellers had started spinning when the airline guy came running back yelling: “You can all fly, you can all fly!” Our backpacks were grabbed and thrown onboard the plane and we huddled into the crowded plane, but all of us got a normal seat and none, unfortunately, had to sit with the captain. (We later found out that we had been given the seats normally reserved for the stewardesses, and that they instead were sitting on crates and plastic stools in the back while taking off and landing - so much for safety!)
The guys from our airline looked so relieved when they waved us off, and I guess they were thanking their god, that they got rid of the demanding, difficult and angry customers, that weren’t satisfied with a vague answer, wanted them, the staff, to take action and even demanded that a solution needed to be found.
The avoidance of dealing with a problem, general incompetence and lack of talking responsibility seems to be so common in Indonesia, that you sometimes wonder how anyone ever gets anything done, and how this country even functions. But all in all it is mostly a cultural difference that can be really frustrating at times to a pair of Scandinavians, but which you have to learn to live with, if you are to live and survive in this otherwise incredible country.

We made it back!

Visit to the Flower Island: Part 2

2009-03-29 00:00:00

Labuan Bajo is one of the bigger cities in Flores, but that doesn’t mean it is very big. It is a harbor city with quite a lot of water traffic coming and going, from the water the land rise steeply which means that many of the houses have fantastic views out over the harbor, the water and the many small islands which are situated just off-shore. Luckily our hotel enjoyed the same incredible views, waking up in the morning and looking out of the window was a real joy. We also saw some beautiful sunsets while staying in Labuan Bajo.

One of the days, while Martin went diving, the rest of us decided to head out to one of the small islands for a day in the sun. We bought lunch boxes with delicious fried chicken and headed to the harbor to find a boat, after a while we succeed in finding a skipper willing to take us for a fair price.

It took about 45 minutes to get to Bidadari Island, where we were met by a beautiful white sand beach. The water was so clear and clean, just off the beach was a coral reef stretching out over a large area before disappearing down a steep drop off. I saw big parrot fish and trigger fish, plus a lot of smaller fish, there was a group who looked just like little Nemos but only with black and white stripes instead of the usual orange and white. There was also a big lion fish gliding elegantly through the waters.

We spend the whole day swimming and playing around, only when the sun started to set did we return.

Weekend get-away to Paradise

2009-03-29 00:00:00

Last weekend Martin surprised me with a weekend get away to a beautiful boutique resort and spa in the outskirts of Ubud named Waka Di Ume. We celebrated our 9 year anniversary in a luxury bungalow with our own private pool and gorgeous views out over the padi fields. It was great having breakfast on our veranda looking out over the green, green rice fields, a few women were working in the fields and happily waved at us. It is funny how tourism in Bali is so omnipresent in many areas, but still doesn’t seem to overtake the local ways and traditions. I applaud the Balinese who succeeds in maintaining a happy, relaxed attitude towards all the foreigners running through their rice fields and taking photographs in their temples. It is wonderful for us foreigners to feel so comfortable and welcome here in what truly is the island of the gods.

One night while staying at Waka Di Ume we had a romantic candlelight dinner in a bale (like a little pavilion) standing all alone halfway out in the rice field and halfway in a little pond filled with lotus flowers and quaking frogs. We had the most delicious dinner accompanied by a bottle of Balinese wine while listening to a small orchestra of grasshoppers and frogs. It was a beautiful night and with only flickering candlelights we could easily see the fireflies circling over the rice fields. The next morning we woke up to a 2 hour spa session at the beautiful open laid out spa with a jungle view (!) We left feeling very soft and relaxed :-)

Visit to the Flower Island: Part 1

2009-03-27 00:00:00

We had been invited to stay with Olivia’s family in Flores, and set out on an eight days vacation to the flower island together with Timo, Yulun and of cause Olivia. We boarded a small Fokker propeller plane bound for Labuan Bajo airport and after initial small-plane worries by the girls, we had an amazingly beautiful flight with clear skies and views over Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa and the Komodo islands. We contemplated on how many fantastic beach hide-away resorts this area could encompass, but luckily for the independent traveler, and probably only due to lack of infrastructure, it only holds little tourist industry.

We landed on the little airstrip two hours later and headed for downtown Labuan Bajo, a small port-town on the eastern tip of Flores, just outside the Komodo National Park. The Komodo National Park is an ocean area covering the two main islands of Komodo and Rinca, and is famous for being the only natural habitat for Komodo Dragons and boosting an incredible diverse marine life with unbelievable beautiful coral reefs and many unspoiled islands and beaches. A few islands have small settlements, but for most parts only daytrippers and divers roam the park in small boats – it is indeed one of Indonesia’s most attractive places I think. We had time enough to go to the local beach in the afternoon and lazed a bit while we tried to teach a not so willing Olivia to swim. On the way back, we saw the most beautiful sunset and when night fell we went to the harbor and had delicious Ikan Lalapan (grilled fish with rice and mixed vegetables) while we gazed to the horizon with the many small boats rolling gently on the dark waters.

Later in the evening we headed up to the Paradise Bar, where live music was in good swing. Lots of locals were hanging out together with a few foreigners; some of the first were even dancing. We drank some Bintangs and played cards, before being joined by two American guys and their bottle of imported tequila. It became a long night, with a lot of drinking games and consequently tequila shots! But it was fun and with good company and a nice, lively atmosphere we had a great time.

The next morning we split up; I wanted to do some diving while the others went out for a day on the beach. After the escapades the previous night I was a bit red eyed and tired when I got up at 6 o’clock, but luckily I didn’t feel nauseous – the idea of puking in the oxygen mouth piece sounds very unappealing to me! I had never seen Manta rays and I had heard that the Komodo National Park was a good place to see them, so I signed up for a daytrip with three dives through one of the local diving agencies. Diving is roughly 25 dollars per dive, and then there is an entrance fee for the national park costing you 15 dollars (valid for three days). We sailed out in a nice little boat, a group of 3 divers (including me) and 1 snorkeler + a Dutch divemaster and the boat crew of 3 locals. On the way out the stunning scenery unfolded, the blue waters, green almost barren islands and clear skies, a truly serene and unforgettable setting.
Diving was worth every penny. The first dive took us to a coral wall of a little rocky island, which was a techno-color of red, blue, green, yellow – well, every color of the rainbow in fact. The corals where teeming with life; many, many coral fish, bigger school fish hung in the blue, nudibranches, reef sharks and some hawksbill turtles feeding amongst the few dead corals + a single sea snake. The coral wall looked very healthy, no bleaching or massive coral death as seen at many other dive sites around the world, and it was so large an area that we didn’t cover much of it on our 50 minute dive.
Second dive was to the famous manta point, a large flat sandy bank just of Komodo Island. Here waters from the South China Sea flow downwards to the Indian Ocean bringing lots of plankton with its currents; the plankton attracts a big number of both rays and whales, including the giant Manta ray. As we approached the dive site we spotted the first Mantas skimming the surface; their huge shadows gliding through the clear, turquoise ocean. The currents were strong and the visibility “only” around 12-15 meters (caused by the abundance of plankton), but following small patches of corals dotting the sandy ocean floor, we could rather easily get around. At first we only spotted the Mantas gliding in and out of our field of view; out-of-worldly creatures checking out the newcomers. But soon we found them hanging suspended over the sand, majestically “flying” with heads against the current having a feast on the plankton. Their size and strength is amazing; the biggest some 4 meters wide having absolutely no problems staying in place directly up against the strong currents. We on the other hand struggled closer to the large but gentle creatures, which seemed to not notice us. Hanging on to the few rocks on the sandy bottom, we simply watched them while inching closer. One of them, maybe done feeding, maybe wanting privacy, swam up and just over us, gliding its huge body a meter or two above our heads, an exhilarating experience. We saw around 15 Mantas in different sizes in total; their magnificence so attractive to me, that I have completely forgotten what other marine life we saw on that dive (I think we saw some more reef sharks passing by, and of cause a lot of fish in the patches of coral).
The third dive was a drift dive, where we cozily drifted along another coral wall; again the corals where amazing and marine life more than abundant, giving us a close encounter with a big hawksbill turtle that wanted to take a look at the stupid looking surfacers clumsily floating with the current. All in all I cannot recommend diving in the Komodo National park highly enough – if you have the slightest interest in diving, this place is heaven!

Unfortunately as I don’t have an underwater camera, the picture of
the Manta-ray has unscrupulously been stolen from someone else.

Visit from home and fullmoon ceremony

2009-03-27 00:00:00

Bali in March is busy! The Balinese New Year is approaching and the month of March is full of holidays, colorful parades and religious ceremonies, we have bought our own traditional Balinese outfits so that we can take part in all the festivities, if you want to enter a temple in Bali you must wear at least a sarong.

In the beginning on the month Kasper and Pernille, our friends from Denmark who are currently living in Australia, paid us a visit. It was great to see them again and we had fun feeding the monkeys in the famous monkey forest in Ubud and sampling various kinds of Balinese beer and spirits. We also caught a Kecak performance and spend a day by the beach. Unfortunately they could only stay a week and before we knew they were on their way back to Brisbane.

We were also saying goodbye to Tippe, Anom, Siwi and Gaya, who unfortunately had to go back to Denmark before time. We didn’t get to see them as much as we wanted, but time flies away here, and suddenly we were having farewell dinner. We will miss them all, those cute girls and their sweet smiles are hard not to adore.

On March 10th it was full moon which is very important to the Balinese, so the main temple in Denpasar is a hype of activities all night long; people keep milling in to pray and leave offerings. We dressed up to our best abilities in sarong, kebaya, udeng – all the traditional clothes, kindly borrowed to us by my friend’s hostfamily. The atmosphere in the temple was ceremonious with row after row of people praying. In the middle of the compound, in front of the “chair” for the gods, the offerings were pilling high and incense filled the air. Over us the full moon was beaming bright.

Outside the temple however there was an air of carnival, with lots of little stands selling snacks and softdrinks, someone had set up a game where you can win cigarettes by throwing a ring around a pack. Wyang Kulit (Balinese shadow Puppet Theater) was being preformed. We bought bakso (meatball soup) and sat down to do a bit of people spotting, we quickly discovered that the way we were dressed apparently is pretty old fashioned... A lot of young people were hanging out outside the temple all wearing their sarongs in very creative ways. The next day we went shopping so that we won’t look so hopelessly old fashioned next time we venture out in “traditional” Balinese outfits. I just hope we can figure out how to tie those sarongs just the right way...

Weekends of Exploring

2009-02-23 00:00:00

The previous two weekends have been put to good use. We have been out exploring nearby areas on Bali and the neighboring island Nusa Lembongan. It’s nice to make trips like this, where we pack only a small pack, making travelling light and easy.

We took the ferry to Nusa Lembongan early Saturday morning together with Timo and his girlfriend Olivia. Timo is in Laerkes BIPA class, Olivia is a native from Flores. They met on Sumba of all places! The ferry ride was quite uneventful, it was nice to chat, but everyone was a bit tired from getting up early. Olivia, like many Indonesians, can’t swim, which made her shriek a little when the waves got high. It’s quite curious that in a country that exists only of Islands, most people can’t swim properly. We embarked with dry feet though, the weather was nice and the sun was shining through a light layer of morning clouds. But as Nusa Lembongan does not have a pier, we embarked a few meters from the shore, not arriving with dry feet ;) Laerke was offered a piggyback ride by the crew though, but she politely refused.

After having second breakfast, we set out on foot south along the shore and the main beach, where fishingboats, seaweed farms and ferries crowd the shallow waters. Crossing the lush headlands that protrude into the blue sea, we found some smaller and more peaceful coves with white-sand-beaches and azure waters. Even in the smaller coves, fishing boats are not to be avoided though, but it doesn’t matter much, as they are actually often quite beautiful with their brightly painted hulls and spiderlike outriggers.

We swam and relaxed on the beach the whole day, returning in the afternoon, when clouds slowly began to gather and a light shower reminded us that it is still rainy season. We headed back through the small Kampungs (villages) that dot the coasts and interior of Nusa Lembongan. The atmosphere on the island is much more relaxed than the big tourist areas of mainland Bali, and as many of the locals are employed in the Seaweed farming business, tourism is only a secondary income to most, making the locals less intrusive and more indifferent (meant in a good way). When we returned it was almost sunset, so after a lovely dinner we were ready to head for bed.

The next morning we again had to rise pretty early (by our standards) to take the public ferry back to Bali. We woke by ourselves though before the alarm clock rang and took the 5 steps to the beach. Here the locals were already getting themselves busy with seaweed farming, bringing in groceries from the morning markets in Bali or big baskets of fish caught earlier in the morning. Children were out catching sandworms to use for bait and a few women were still putting out offerings.

On the way back we were lucky to get a good view of Gunung Agung, the tallest and holiest mountain on Bali. Most often it is shrouded in thick mist or clouds, so even though it dominates the landscape of eastern Bali, it is rarely seen.

A week later, in the following weekend, we again took out to explore Bali. We loaded up our scooter and set out on the 30 km drive to Padang Bai in the eastern part of Bali. Together with Petra and Yulun we arrived at the sleepy little tourist/ferry town an hour later, having almost lost Yulun on the way due to a gas-stop she didn’t notice. Yulun racing on while we were stopping forced us to do a little cat and mouse chase on the luckily not so crowded road. Yulun was driving last in line, so when we stopped and she zoomed right past us, she assumed that we had ridden faster than her, and she was dropping behind, therefore increasing her speed – making us now chasing her, and having a hard time catching up. Well in the end we succeeded and everyone was once more driving together. Padang Bai is mainly known as the port for ferries to Lombok and the ‘Gili Islands’, but it’s a charming little town, that has some nice beaches on offer and some small, but nice coral reefs for snorkeling. We stayed a bit out of town, but close to the southern beach, which none of us can remember the name of. The beach is great though; a stretch of white sand trees backing it, giving some much needed shade. A little warung and some stalls selling coffee and sarongs too, and the local vendors aren’t too much of a hassle. The water is clean and turquoise with a fun swell that might be too big for kids, but is really fun when you feel like being thrown around. But only 15 meters out the waves don’t break and it’s good for swimming. I caught a big wave and bodysurfed all the way to the beach; which was a bit too far though, as I got a slammed right down on the sand, scraping my back a little. The powers of the waves are amazing, fascinating and sometimes a bit scary...

A big scar has been made on the otherwise idyllic beach though. What was once a nice backdrop of jungle, has now been transformed into a building site for a major hotel development. The hotel was not approved or licensed though, making it totally illegal. So when one of the Koreans behind the project died, and the project therefore also ran out of money, the construction stopped. What is left now is a construction site, which no one knows what will happen to – a perfect example of Indonesian corruption and lack of control.

We made a little friend on the beach

Most of our two days in Padang Bai were spend at the beach, but we also took a small outrigger boat out to the coral reef and did some snorkeling. It wasn’t the best snorkeling ever, but there were some nice corals and many smaller fish, including banner- and parrot-fish, and I think I saw a trigger-fish as well. In the evenings we gathered with the local guys on the beach and drank some beer and arak, chatted, sang songs and listened to them playing the guitar. One of the nights was full moon, so we watched the older generation walking in a long line to the nearby shore temple. They were of cause dressed in their kabayas and sarongs and carrying big baskets of offerings. They were a solemn but very colorful and enchanting sight under the full moon; but unfortunately it was too dark for taking pictures.

We had our scooter problems on the trip too. Yuluns bike had problems going uphill, which resulted in it stopping half way on a very steep part of road. Not knowing what to do, and unable to hold the heavy bike, Yulun simply let it fall. This resulted in a bent brake pedal and a slightly shocked Taiwanese girl. She was soon better though and with a big wrench, the brake pedal was also fixed without needing real repairs. Our bike had to go to the bengkel (Indonesian for a small bike-repair shop) though, as one of our bearings in the front wheel cracked on the way home; luckily it took the guys at the shop only 20 minutes to fix it, and it only set us back 20 Danish kronor (around 3 USD).

S'pore

2009-01-29 00:00:00

Back in Singapore! This time we were planning for an even shorter visit due to the high costs of decent accommodation here, and we were actually only stopping by to get our visas done. But things turned out differently; as we were lucky enough to be accommodated by a great girl called Juana we met through CouchSurfing (Cudos to www.couchsurfing.com for making such a great community).
Staying with Juana made our budget more in tune with Singapore, we could now spend our money having fun instead. The first night we came to Juana’s, she had arranged a dinner with some other couchsurfers and some of her friends. We had great Malay food and it was fun to meet a lot of different people. We ended up going to ‘Zouk Out’, which is a big dance festival, held at Sentosa Island beach. It was a lot of fun, with good music (I thought so anyway), lots of festive Singaporeans and good company. As it was a beach party, it was considered ok to wear bikinis or shorts only. It was quite a different way of dressing than we had been used to in India. In general Singaporean girls dress skimpily; short skirts and tight tops; but this was even less. But what was most amazing was the nonchalant way everyone behaved; no one stared at the girls, no one made inappropriate moves or simply grabbed a butt or boob – which for sure would have happened in India. All in all Singaporeans are so polite and easy going – if you on accident bump into someone, they will be the one apologizing, even though it was your fault. This aspect is one of the things I really like so about Singaporeans – nowhere in the world do you feel so relaxed and unthreatened, and just know that you can walk down the darkest of alleys at night, without needing to feel worried. Also it is refreshing to be back in a country where women are again seen as equals to men, and where women can behave and dress as they please, without being stared at or harassed. Another thing you immediately notice is that the general understanding known as ‘standing in queue’ is again present, which was a relief after India and China.

We got to do some sightseeing as well – mostly the low key places and some museums. Singapore is a great place just to wander around, discovering neighborhoods you didn’t know exist. It’s a big city though, but with the efficient MRT system, you get so easily around. Contemporary art is big in Singapore, and we saw some interesting exhibitions. But equally good is the more traditional Cilvilizations museum, where you can get an insight into Singapore’s origin and incredible cultural mix. We also went to Chinatown to visit the newly build Buddha Tooth Temple. It was really cool – grand in scale and décor, but also intimate and mystical. At the 5th floor rooftop they had created an orchid garden with a small temple and prayer wheel in the center; the serenity up there was fantastic – especially because the buzz and bustle of the financial district was visible through the gated windows.

Singapore is so diverse, both in people, religions, culture and landscapes – all packaged into a small island. It’s amazing how Hindu temples, Buddhist shrines, mosques and churches lay side by side, and how the Little India district entangles with the Malay/Arab district. Worshippers of Chinese descendant, heading for their Buddhist temples, stop by the Hindu temples and pray or make offerings, just to cover all bases. And through all the cultures, capitalism is ever present, symbolized by the giant skyscrapers, thriving businesses and giant malls. But around and in between these consumer-oriented symbols stand another kind of symbols – the massive concrete housing complexes, which most of Singaporeans call home. Even though these complexes resemble the big ghettoes of some European cities (including some Danish), they are far from that. Actually they are an item of pride to the Singaporeans. The layout is the same as an ordinary ghetto in Europe, but the atmosphere is completely different. Everyone seems to get along and even as a stranger you feel welcome. It is probably mostly due to the Singaporean mentality, but another factor might have an impact also. In each housing block, there are certain quotas on the ethnic groups living there – meaning that e.g. 50% have to be ethnic Chinese, 30% ethnic Malays and 20% ethnic Indians. This constitutes to a mixed neighborhood where everyone is represented and no ethnic group really has a majority. Singapore has its issues as any other country on earth and racial and religious problems are not unknown; with the current religious currents in many neighboring countries, indeed in the whole world, one most just hope that Singapore steers clear of the conflicts other countries face.

Sampling the Singaporean nightlife once wasn’t enough, so we once more hooked up with some Couchsurfers and Juana + friends, and headed out for a night on the town. The Clark Quay area of Singapore boosts some fantastic clubs and bars – stylish and fun, and being a Wednesday it was “ladies night”, meaning free entrance and drinks for the girls. Us guys had to pay, but some free drinks were discretely passed our way, and the girls were in good mood with all their free Lychee Martinis in hand. After dancing and having fun long into the night, we took a cab home and slept soundly long into the morning.

We were also lucky to be accommodated at Ashok’s (a friend of Laerke’s) family just before we headed to Bali. They were such nice people and we were sorry that we would only spend one night and that we were unable to taste Ashok’s mother’s surely delicious cooking. We had a great dinner in the local food court with Ashok and his lovely little sister though, eating until our stomachs almost burst.

Settling down in the Tropics

2009-01-29 00:00:00

The last couple of weeks here on Bali have been both relaxed and quite eventful. Laerke’s classes have picked up speed and they are now doing homework and there has been some slight complaining about too much school and boring homework. Well, what can you expect after 6 months of being totally free to do whatever you want ;) But she still enjoys it I believe. Almost every day after I pick her up, we go to the local warung to have lunch together with some other students from her class or school. It’s great just chatting while eating cheap local food and drinking an orange or mango juice.

A very important thing has finally happened...we got ourselves a house! It’s the same one as we previously wrote about, so no need for repetitions. It’s been great to move in, unpack our stuff and get to have our own kitchen again. I’ve been cooking every evening we’ve spend here so far and as almost everything is available in the market or supermarket, it’s not hard to make up something yummy. Only thing missing is an oven, but it seems that ovens are not very widely used here. We had to go hunting for a dining table as well, but after a search mission last Saturday, we got one! It was quite a search though, going into a lot of small furniture workshops to find the right kind for the right price. We finally found a suitable one in a bit of a ramshackle looking place, but we got it for a fair price (30 USD) inclusive of delivery. The delivery truck consisted of the owner and his assistant driving with the table on a scooter, following us all the way home (a 30 minute drive) – it went without problems, but when it started raining we got a bit concerned; remembering how the downpours can be here on Bali, we were glad that it kept to a small drizzle. It is quite amazing how almost anything can be freighted on scooters here, as I’ve said before, I’m really starting to like those pesky things.

The little garden in front of our house

Our house came with two TV’s and a DVD player, and as in many Asian countries, pirate DVD’s are sold openly in stores and markets – which means movie nights! Even though it seems as such a dull thing to do in a “exotic” destination as Bali, being on the move for a long time really gives you an urge to just relax and do something homely; 6 good quality “original copy” DVD’s cost around 5 USD, so we are caching up on some of the latest flicks, while eating candy and ice cream...just as anyone at home, or in the entire world, would do.
This weekend we had dinner with a bunch of people from Laerke's school, we were 4 Indonesians and 4 “bule”, which is Balinese for foreigner. It was Imlek (Buddhist/Chinese New Year) and one of our new friends is Buddhist; according to tradition they always have a big meal together with all of the family, so we acted as replacements.

After dinner we drove to a special temple which we had read about somewhere on the Net. It is special in the way that it is a place of worship for people of 3 different religions in the same temple; Buddhism, Hinduism and Taoism. Yulun, our Buddhist friend, had gone to investigate the day before, and found out that there would be an Imlek celebration at midnight; and we were not disappointed. Traditional dragon dance, lion dance and fireworks ensued and the troupe performing was excellent and the locals welcoming and warm.
We’ve seen Chinese New Year’s performances before in Denmark, but here it was much more artistic and even competitive; the different lions (two men in a lion suit) competed in who could do the best show; meaning more and more neck breaking stunts. The dragon was swung with both passion and excitement, in such a degree that some in the audience were nearly eaten alive (or at least they nearly got hit). We had to duck a few times, but the excitement and atmosphere was worth the risk of getting a few bruises. Afterwards Yulun went for a short prayer session while we looked around the beautiful temple grounds, where architecture and shrines from the three religions were peculiarly, but compellingly, mixed together.
It was extraordinary to see Hindus in full sarong/kabaya regalia attending a Buddhist/Chinese event, but I guess they were enjoying the show, just as we were. Also, as is the case in Singapore, Hindus and Buddhists here seem to be pretty casual about paying homage to each other’s deities – after all the two religions do have many similarities, and Buddhism in many parts of Asia, is practiced in unison with older belief systems, involving deities and gods not originally intended by the Buddhist teachings, making the two religions even more similar.

Latest update from our home; we have a nightly (and sometimes daily) visitor; a “tigus” or mouse in English is terrorizing our kitchen! Ah well, it’s not that dramatic, actually the only traces it has left so far is a few mouse droppings; no food has been touched as of yet, strangely enough. I’ll try and catch it in a humanely way though, but finding a humane mousetrap here in Indonesia will be a challenge, so I might need to resort to more ineffective homemade devices – updates will follow.
Oh, to not deceive anyone about the rainy season weather here on Bali (the previous posts have been a lot about rain, rain, rain), the last 10 days or so have been nice and sunny, with only a few light showers or an overcast afternoon. Sometimes even a bit too sunny and warm, forcing us to do the only thing imaginable - to go to the beach ;)

Daily life in Bali

2009-01-29 00:00:00

Today has been such a great day! It didn’t rain as Martin drove me to school, so I arrived nice and dry, the first class was a bit dense, but the second class was so much fun! The professor is such an entertainer and goof-ball :-) We were all laughing our way through class, I’m sure you learn a lot faster when it comes in with laughter.

Entrance to the Udayana University

School ends at noon, then we all pile into the tiny canteen (it looks a LOT like a warung) where the little Ibu served us delicious gado-gado and nice cooling “The Botol”. We were all talking housing over lunch, Petra have just found a nice room in Seminyak, 2 million Rupiah a month (approximately 1000kr or 500US) brand new and with a view over the rice paddies. As martin and I are still homeless (or more correctly we are staying in a really nice guesthouse with a pool right outside our doorstep, but we’d like to rent a house of our own), we had a date with a guy who is renting out a house in the outskirts of Denpasar for 2,5 million Rupiah a month, and we were happily surprised! It was a really nice little house, it is on a small quiet road with maybe 10 houses on – all of them look really well kept. “Our” house is quite small, it has 2 bedrooms, 2 small bathrooms and a living room with a kitchen in one end, and there are two Balinese house temples! I asked the guys what we are gonna do about that, because we don’t know how to do the offerings (that you actually have to do 3-5 times a day) so we don’t really have the time either! But then again you don’t want angry house spirits... They quickly talked it over and said that the spirits wouldn’t be mad, but if we were concerned about it they could come and do the offerings for us :-). There are some special considerations when renting a house in Bali, not quite the same as at home, but that is just the charm of it.

After a couple of days of heavy rain, today the sun decided to come out! So as soon as we got back to our hotel we jumped in the pool. After we had dried off we were invited over for noodle soup by our neighbor, a friendly talkative Indonesian woman and her 2 cute kids that are half Dutch. Mom speaks Indonesian and some English, the daughter; Meeka goes to an International school and speaks with a heavy American accent and the little boy; Mickey speaks mostly Indonesian with some English words here and there. So we all chatted away in a mix of Indonesian and English.
After noodle soup and chocolate biscuits, Martin and I drove to the beach. The beach looked so beautiful in the sunshine and the water was all clear, we just swam and lazed and enjoyed that it wasn’t raining. Tonight we are going out for sushi – yum!

Tropical Downpours

2009-01-14 00:00:00

Uhh, it has been raining a lot these last couple of days, so much that the swimming pool at our guesthouse ran over its edge and upon coming home from dinner one night; we had to walk through ankle deep water coming down the driveway to our hotel. It is not just raining cats and dogs; it is at least raining cows, maybe even elephants :-)

The day after a particularly heavy nightly rainstorm, we were driving Laerke to school on our scoter – it had stopped raining thankfully, but the roads were still quite wet – and we were to learn just how wet they were. We drove through some pretty deep pools, but one took the cake. The road was literally no more – it was converted into a lake. Well let’s just say that even the Balinese were turning back, only a few braved going through the water masses – we took the chance as well. Lifting our feet high and giving full throttle we began our sailing - the bike fought a brave fight, but we got pretty concerned when the water reached at least 20 cm and our speed decreased more and more, but still we kept going! Success, we made it through, with feet almost dry and motorcycle still running – others were not quite as lucky!

The other night we went to have dinner and drove down the main road to the chosen restaurant; coming back we and the other driving on the road were stopped and forced to take a detour through a small alley and round the block by a guy standing in the middle of the road. We asked him what was going on and why we had to detour. “Because of this problem…” he answered pointing down the main road. We quickly understood what he was talking about; a giant tree had fallen on the road, blocking it completely. No one had gotten hurt luckily! As it was evening the traffic wasn’t bad and luckily the rain had stopped a couple of hours before. So after parking our scooter we went to join the gathering crowd to watch what was going on. Groups of Balinese and tourist were chatting, joking and laughing, enjoying the evening event. We met a sweet Dutch/Indonesian family from our guesthouse, and Laerke got to practice her Indonesian with the Indonesian mother and the youngest kid. There was a great feeling of carnival in the air, and I think everyone was wondering if the tree would ever be removed. There’s no real government organization to take care of such things I think, especially not one that is working at night, but the Balinese knew that, and slowly men and children gathered picking up loose branches and moving them to the footpath. About 15 minutes later a couple of locals arrived on their bikes with small chainsaws in hand. Things were set in motion, the chainsaws fired up and cutting, sawing and lifting begun. Everyone was in great spirits; the men feeling important and manly, women laughing on the side cracking jokes, and the children scrambling to get hold of the branches that were cut off, so that they could be the one to carry the most. It was amazing to see how much could be achieved with these “simple” tools. We were still wondering though, if their small chainsaws could manage to cut through the thick main trunk, when we left the scene a while later.
The next morning we were a bit surprised to see the entire tree had been cut up in nice pieces and was lying by the side of the road. Having dropped Laerke off in Denpasar, I returned to Sanur and again were surprised; this time someone had summoned a little truck, and men were loading the big pieces of trunk into it by hand. A couple of hours later, only loose leaves were evidence to witness the evening’s big event.

Selamat Natal

2009-01-14 00:00:00

And so we came to Bali, the second chapter in our, until now, migratory journey through Asia.
The Holidays were closing in, so we decided to go straight to Ubud, where Laerkes friends from Uni, Sophie and Tippe, have settled for a while. Ubud is a great place, set among beautiful green hills and even greener ricepaddies, with many small villages to explorer and nature paths to walk.
The city itself is not quite as idyllic as it sounds though. The many tourists and semi settled foreigners have made the city grow to a decent sized town, with traffic jams and lots of trade minded singlehandedly on tourism. But still Ubud retains a somewhat rural feel, and it is a great place to spend time, especially if you have friends there.
Ubud is known as the spiritual center of Bali, and many expats/tourists seem to really like the idea – spiritualism, yoga and organic food are high on the list in many shops and cafes. It actually leads your thoughts back to India, with all the ashrams, yoga-classes and other new-aged hippie ideology. It seems a bit fake though and we couldn’t help but laugh at the name Sophie gave hippies in Ubud: “Botox hippies”, a name drawn from the fact that some of these middle-aged hippies have peculiarly perky lips, bums or chests.

We didn’t do much in Ubud, other than enjoying the scenery, a lovely pool and our good friends and their splendid company. Sophie and Tippe are there for the same reason as we are, practicing their Bahasa Indonesia and in the mean time enjoying Balinese culture and life. We had a great time eating delicious food and even more delicious cake in the many fantastic restaurants around Ubud.
We spend Christmas with Sophie, Tippe, Tippes husband Anom and their two adorable girls, Siwi and Gaya. We ate a great Balinese feast consisting of tasty fish, Urab (a Balinese salad), rice and sambal (homemade balinese chilisauce/salad) and many other small dishes that Anom’s family had cooked up for ours sake. We got so stuffed, that we had to wait having dessert until after we had song Christmas carols and danced round the Christmas tree. The tree itself was quite untraditional, but none the less much more fitting to a Balinese Christmas. No pine trees are to be had in Bali, so the tree consisted of potted palm leaves, decorated with homemade Christmas decorations – all in all a beautiful ensemble.
After the dancing we sat down again to have Ris a la Mande. Sophie was the chef for this traditional Danish Christmas dessert and she had conjured up a great bowl with cherry sauce and everything (brought from Denmark). As we were a lot of people, we had two whole almonds in the Ris a la Mande; and guess who got them – Laerke and myself! This meant presents for us, consisting of yummy chocolates – that were promptly tasted! After the dessert the gifts were ready for unpacking. (It’s tradition in Scandinavia to celebrate Christmas and open Christmas gifts on the 24th.). As on par with a normal Danish Christmas, Tippes girls got the most of the presents.
It was a cozy and fun night and it was great to be surrounded again by good friends; talking, laughing and simply having a good time, long into the night.

A new beginning

2009-01-11 00:00:00

It is the beginning of a new year, and what a great start, I’ve just woken up here in beautiful Ubud, I’m sitting on our little terrace with a view down over the pool and “the jungle”, the sun is shining and it is just one of those mornings where it is great to be alive! We had a lovely New Years Eve yesterday at my friends Tippe and Anom’s place, a lot of Anom’s family was there, his mom, sister, brother-in-law, brother and a bunch of kids. The Mom and sister had been there since 10 in the morning cooking up a Balinese feast, it was pedas!!! And yummy :-) Tippe and Anom have 2 little girls (Siwi 9 and Gaia 4) and they are just the best kids, so much fun. We had all bought these colourful horns that made A LOT of noise, and we were dancing and goofing around. Our friend Sophie and Tippe’s sister was there too, the sister had just flown in that day and was super jet-lagged, so the sister and Gaia went to bed fairly early but the rest of us stayed up and we all jumped of the chairs at midnight and drank champagne that the now sleeping sister had brought from Denmark! It was really low key and casual, I had earlier that day kinda wished that we were going to some fancy party where everybody would dress up etc. but as we drove home (Martin and I on our scooter and Anom giving Sophie a ride home on his – honking at each other all the way) I just felt happy, really what is better than a just having a good time with some great people? No need for high heels and fancy dresses :-)

The view from our terrace

A couple of days later: we have now relocated to Sanur, we are hoping to find a house in this area, because Sanur is nicer than the other side I think (e.g. Kuta, Legian and Seminyak) and because it only takes 15-20 minutes to drive from Sanur to the University in Denpasar where I am going to study. It is too far from Ubud to the University to drive there every morning.
The west coast beaches of Bali has a real problem with garbage at the moment, it is the rainy season now and so the rivers which apparently are filled with garbage now gets filled with all the rainwater and runs out into the sea carrying all the garbage with them. The current wind and wave conditions then bring all this garbage up on the beaches. In Legian and Seminyak it seems they pick up the garbage, so the beach seems fairly clean, but as soon as you go in the water you have got plastic clinging to your legs – we got out of the water after about 5 sec. – who wants to swim in a pile of garbage? One day we took a walk on Kuta beach, and it was bad! There were heaps of garbage on the beach, twigs, sea weed, plastic, old shoes, dead fish - you name it, all tangled together. Somebody had at one point attempted to collect some of it which had resulted in some huge garbage mountains at one end of the beach.
But here in Sanur the wind and wave conditions must be different because the beach here is nice and clean, yesterday we just went and sat under one of the huge trees shading the beach and hung out and breathed in the sweet smell of frangipanis, there were a few locals on the beach too. Some young boys chasing tiny crabs, a grandmother and her little granddaughter taking a walk along the beach stopping to buy spring rolls from a vendor, a family were swimming and splashing around – all fully clothed, and two women were collecting seaweed from the edge of the water. Completely idyllic if you disregard a few offers of transport, jet-skiing and “come look my shop” calls :-)

Boat at Sanur beach

To something completely else - I had my first day in school today! The Udayana University in Denpasar is pretty small, but I like that, it makes it seems very friendly I think :-) Since it was the first day there was a placement test and then a lot of information and a tour of the school. So I can’t say anything about the teaching yet, but I got a very positive impression of the BIPA program (Bahasa Indonesia untuk Penutur Asing). We were eight new students, 3 Japanese, one Korean, one Taiwanese girl I got along with pretty well, a German guy and a one girl from Switzerland. One of the Japanese girls and the Korean girl don’t speak English, which is actually brilliant because they speak some Indonesian and now we are all forced to communicate with them only in Indonesian :-) I am pretty excited to start the classes proper and to see how it all goes.

Our house hunting has so far borne no fruit... we looked at a pretty cool “joglo” house yesterday (traditional Javanese house). Anyways it is a bit too expensive for us, so we’ll keep looking... A bit tired of house hunting by now.
Our itinerary here in Bali is just to stay for the next 4 months; my language program end on April 18th. After that we’ll either travel around Indonesia a bit or somewhere else here in Southeast Asia.

The lazy life - Andaman style

2008-12-11 00:00:00

The Andaman Islands, a fabled destination, renowned by the few in the know for its fabulously beautiful beaches. When we were in India last we had planned a trip here but the tsunami prevented it, the fact that we had “missed” it once made us want to go even more! I was actually starting to worry that I would end up getting disappointed because of all this built up.
We flew from Chennai to Port Blair (the capital of the Andaman Islands) the only other option of getting here is a 4-5 days ferry trip, and as a cyclone were just passing Chennai we did not really feel like embarking on a sea journey like that. It rained like crazy in Chennai and on most streets we walked in water to up over our ankles. So flying it was. It took 2 hours. From Port Blair we took a ferry to Havelock Island, we went up to deck to enjoy the view and were quite surprised to see the light changing little by little, turning golden and making all the shadows long – it was a little past four in the afternoon and the sun was slowly sinking into the sea! The Andaman Islands are a part of India even thought they are actually a lot closer to Myanmar and Thailand than they are to India, and in spite of their location so far east of the Indian mainland they still run on Indian time. So our watch was saying 4pm but given the locality it should probably have been closer to 6pm.

Once we got off the ferry on Havelock we took an auto rickshaw to the other site of the island to beach no. 7, if anybody is talking about The Andaman Islands this is probably what they are talking about, if they have seen pictures it will be of this beach. This is apparently the beach. All my initial worries about ending up disappointed were washed away with the first wave, this is one beautiful beach! And despite of it being the beach it is surprisingly deserted, there is hardly anyone here. The beach consist of one very long and very white stretch of the softest sand, the water is a gorgeous turquoise shade and backing down to the beach is the jungle; tall trees and wild, green plants all over. At the end of this long beach is a more sheltered crescent lagoon, the waves here are smaller and there are some coral a little off-shore so it is possible to snorkel here, or when the tide is out you can just stand and look down at the fish – no snorkel gear needed, the water is so clear.

As we sit on the beach looking back at the jungle we can see green parrots with orange heads fly about screeching at each other, we were also lucky enough to see some black birds with the strangest tail feathers, they are like two long thin strings each with a feather at the end. I’m thinking maybe they are related to The paradise Bird. A couple of elephants and their mahouts walk on the path in the jungle just behind the beach, sometimes they walk on the beach too, afterwards you can see big, round elephant footprints in the sand.

One morning we decided to explore some of this jungle, surrounded by all the green we walked along the elephant path, constantly seeing small lizards fleeing as we approached them. We came upon a small clearing and sat down at tried to be very still, we were rewarded with wonderful birdsong and we saw a beautiful bright yellow bird and plenty of colorful butterflies. At one point I was walking along and suddenly saw a long, thin green snake quickly wind its way across the path in front of me. The terrain changed and we had to climb steeply up, but luckily the elephants had shaped the muddy inclination into a staircase, each of their giant footsteps was a step on a jungle staircase for us. Later we apparently scared a huge monitor lizard because it suddenly scrambled frantically through the undergrowth. Lots of life in the jungle.

After 5 days at beach no. 7 we moved to the other side of the island, to beach no. 5, on this side there are a lot more restaurants and plenty of little bamboo huts by the beach for the tourists. Everywhere around us we hear Hebrew, this place is very popular with the many, many Israelis who come to India. Both our neighboring huts are inhabited by Israelis. They can be pretty loud, but are otherwise harmless. The sea on this side of the island has the same incredible turquoise color that I’ve fallen in love with – I want to take this color with me. If I’m lucky I can keep it in my heart, I hope there is room for all the amazing things we keep seeing and experiencing.

We have rented bicycles and have taken little rides around the island, it is great to leisurely cycle along the small roads surrounded by a mix of green farmland and jungle, seeing kids play cricket on a already harvested field, betel nuts laid out to dry, a woman with a baby on her hip smile to me, then a couple of jeeps and auto rickshaws races past us – and for a moment you feel back in the “real” India, surrounded by dust and exhaust fumes fearing for your life, but thankfully they pass and island life continues, a hen and her baby chicken go back to searching for food in the bushes and two small boys cycle past us in white school uniforms – calling "hello” but not asking for a pen.
Tomorrow is our last day here in paradise, and I’m not sure I’m ready to leave...

From Mumbai to Mysore

2008-12-11 00:00:00

After a long wait at Mumbai International airport we finally spotted them; 3 blonde children and one blonde mom looking very out of place among all those Indian travelers. Lærkes siblings and her mother had landed and were now, at last, in India. Cheering and hugging commenced and maybe a single tear of joy was shed – it was indeed good to see part of our family again. We spend a few days in Mumbai, simply walking around the streets of downtown Colaba. There were many impressions to get used to, many smells and tastes to be sampled. Asbjørn had uttered something similar to the following some months previous when we were planning their visit: “What is the point in going to India, if you don’t eat the local food? I’ll only eat Indian food while in India”. And he certainly liked it, the Indian food, as spicy as it might be to our European tastebuds. We soon headed south along the Konkan coast by car, stopping on the way at Murud and Ganpatipule. There the kids had their first rickshaw drive, which were a mere 5 minutes long and only taken because they could not wait any longer trying those funny looking “cars” with no doors and only three wheels. They also tasted their first fresh coconut; but as exotic as they might look, the taste wasn’t to anyone’s liking.

We reached Goa a couple of days later, our first stop was the north; more specific Arambol. Here we rented 3 bamboo huts at the “secret” beach and the fresh water lake that lies just 15 meters from the sea across the beach. Days drifted by, time seemed to vanish so quickly while we lazed at the beach, swam in the ocean or played in the refreshing sweet waters of the lake. We had big fish dinners, appreciating that six people could eat for less than one person had to pay back home. Shopping at the small stalls that line the cliff or the small streets were a favorite pastime as well. In no time the children looked like they had spent ages in India, wearing baggy colorful Ali Baba pants and of cause cheap plastic flip flops.

Our bamboo huts

We went on to Palolem; which offered a little less laziness. A couple of early mornings were quite rewarding. One took us dolphin spotting in a fishing boat; the other gave a look into the daily life of Goan fishermen. Seeing them unpack their nets, unloading crates of freshly caught fish or shrimp and feeling the fresh chilly breeze from the sea, was a great experience. From Palolem we also took a daytrip to the Dudhsagar waterfalls and a nearby spice-plantation. The falls were quite impressive, but the trip to them in a battered 4x4 was the greatest experience. We raced through the jungle on a very bumpy track, driving through two big rivers; the water rising to above the lower parts of the car doors – some feet getting wet. Here the children had their first encounter with monkeys; Amalie unknowingly entered onto a monkey’s territory (a nearby bench) and must have looked threatening. She got a punch on her back to pay for her deeds. No harm done; she quickly moved.

Next destination was Hampi. We took the train there – an experience in itself, when you are new to India, but everything went smoothly, except when we finally arrived with rickshaw from the train station in Hospet. We had expected what we had experienced on our previous visits here; a somewhat quite city, with only a little of the bustle that all Indian towns have – we were to be fooled. We had tumbled into the annual Hampi festival, meaning hordes of Indians, mostly male, visiting the town! Everyone who has traveled around India should know that this was not good. One rule of thumb that all foreign travelers in India should know is this; do not go into crowds of Indian males, especially if you are female or have children on your tow. Hampi is divided into two parts by a river, so we quickly sought the far and less developed bank, where luckily the nicest guesthouses are located and none of the festival activities were taking place. The festival was to last one more day (and night, which we were to learn), so we walked the beautiful countryside and visited the queer Hanuman temple that boosts a spectacular view from its location on a cliff top and are surrounded by more or less friendly monkeys (Martin got scratched and bitten by them...luckily the kids were spared this time). As the festival ended, by a thunderous firework at four in the morning, the crowds thinned out, and Hampi was almost back to its laid back self. We visited the local buzzing temple and wandered out amidst the ruins that are so famed – the first were to the kids more exciting than “pretty old rocks”. We saw the temple elephant being bathed in the river and got to do some more shopping...increasing the size of our luggage even further!

Next was another train ride; from Hampi to Bengaluru and on to Mysore. Once more everything went according to plan, though the train switch in Bengaluru was a bit intense due to lateness of one train and the general chaotic state of major Indian train stations.
In Mysore we splashed out and stayed at the über nice “Windflower Resort and Spa”. Our rooms were so beautiful and luxurious and way bigger than out apartment at home (!). Amalies favorite thing was the big four poster bed and the chocolate massage she had at the spa, Lærke’s Mom fell in love with the outdoor bathroom – there really is something special about showering under the open sky surrounded by palm trees and exotic flowers. Asbjørn made friends with the resident pet cockatoo while Asger and Martin played giant chess in the beautifully sculptured garden and Lærke sipped a cup of tea on our own little veranda while a flock of geese waddled by. But we didn’t just laze the days away while we were in Mysore. One day we spend at the zoo, where we saw white tigers and a ton of other animals and birds. There were also lots of wild monkeys running around – outside the cages, a beautiful peacock also strolled by and stopped so we could hand feed it peanuts. We even saw a pretty big snake lurking around outside the parrots’ cage.

We found time to shop as well at the dazzling Devaraja market, where we had to fend away a couple of pretty persistent drums salesmen. The glittering bangles stands got a lot of attention, and Amalie ended up buying a box full. We also shopped for some beautiful local outfits for Amalie and Asbjørn. They ended up looking quite stunning in a sari and a kaftan. That night we all dressed up and headed for the Lalit Mahal Palace where we had a splendid dinner, the children looking like rajas, fitting in perfectly in the posh atmosphere.

Cruising the Backwaters

2008-11-21 00:00:00

Time has slowed down and the hustle and bustle of India seemingly has been eliminated. As we sail in our houseboat on the backwaters of Kerala in the warm afternoon sun, in a pace that is not much quicker than walking, you cannot help but feel calm and relaxed. With Indian music on the Ipod and a view of a palm tree lined shore that we slowly drift by, the slogan of Kerala resounds in my head: “God’s own country”. If I believed in God and heaven, I would probably have agreed. Even my in-law family is calm... three kids playing games, drawing or simply just gazing. Lærke is absorbed in a book on a mattress on the keel of the boat, looking as beautiful as ever. Children are playing around the dwellings on shore, woman washes and men row their canoes. We pass a tiny jetty where a small crowd has gathered; a few moments later the water bus arrives and everyone boards.

After a turn onto another branch of backwater, we hear quacks and flapping. What at first from a distance looked like seaweed turns out to be a huge hoard of ducks, being hoarded by three men in canoes – there must have been thousands of birds. We have a three bed-room barge, finely decked out with darkwood furniture and tiles on the floors. Each room is spacious with a double bed and private toilets, not bad at all :-)

Video: Rajasthan

2008-11-09 00:00:00

Rajasthan was filled with colour and music, castles and forts and too many tourists! This video is a glimpse of our trip through the lands of the Rajas.

Video: The Himalayas

2008-11-09 00:00:00

A video from our time spent in the beautiful Himalayas. Flying in to Ladakh from Delhi, we saw the first peaks rising from the lowland plains and soon only narrow valleys were visible between the snowclad mountain peaks. Not only was the landscape stunning - the hearts of the locals matched this beauty easily.

Camel farts and more

2008-11-09 00:00:00

As a birthday present my Mother had given Martin a stay at the “Garh Jaisal Hotel” in Jaisalmer, it is a boutique hotel inside the dramatic sandstone fort that rests on a hill overlooking the whole city. We have an exquisite balcony with lots of pillows from where we sit and enjoy the view out over the city. Now at dusk all the bats that has been hiding in nooks and crannies in the fort comes out in great numbers circling around the fort, round and round passing our balcony. They look a lot more graceful than you would expect; flapping away towards the pink horizon.

Walking around in the narrow streets inside the fort could have been really enjoyful if it wasn’t for all the small souvenir shops and people everywhere trying to sell you stuff. Our favorite place in Jaisalmer remained our balcony :-) we saw the sun rise and set, read books, played cards and drank masala chai (spiced Indian milk tea) all on our balcony.

When we finally managed to tear ourselves away from the hotel we went on an overnight camel safari into the desert surrounding Jaisalmer. On our safari were 2 French guys and a guy from New Zealand, they were all great fun! The camel safari itself was okay, we rode the camels to some sand dunes and then saw the sun set and spent the night on a dune looking up at the full moon, and the next day we rode the camels some more. It was very hot during the day, and camels are not very comfortable to ride on. But there were some good moments, like when one of the French guys fell off his camel – not just down the side but over the camel’s head! :-)Besides that some of the camel drivers (boys ranging in age from 8-11 years old) sang some desert songs for us, the camels farted a bit, and then it was back to Jaisalmer. It has been 3 days now since our safari and my butt is still kinda sore... Good times.

The Warm Heart of Rajasthan

2008-10-11 00:00:00

Bikaner has got to be the hottest place in Rajasthan! At 12 o’clock at night in out room the temperature was 34 degrees...

But the people here in Bikaner are great! We went for a wander around the streets in the old part of town admiring the many old havelis, and a family invited us in for a cup of chai, none of them spoke much English, but we saw all the family photos – of when Mom and Dad got married, the kids when they were small etc. :-) The girl painted my fingernails and gave me something she had knitted. We shared our candy with them and one of the boys was sent out to buy Thumps-up (Indian brand of Coke) for all of us. The kindness of strangers is so heartwarming. Some days it seems like all the Indians are there just to get on our nerves, people shouting after you constantly in the streets ‘buy something in my shop’ “come eat in my restaurant” “need rickshaw?” beggars pulling at your sleeves, and when we actually do want to buy something or need a rickshaw they will try to grossly overcharge us. So when we encounter the “real” people of India who are nice and hospitable it completely restores our faith in the human kind and we really cherish those moments.

And not 10 minutes after we left the family’s home we were invited in somewhere else! More chai and Indian sweets, I held the babies and everybody crowed around us smiling and laughing. The Indian people are amazing!

So even though it was way too hot, Bikaner is now one of our favorite places in India!

45 minutes from Bikaner is the famous Karni Mata Temple also known as the Rat Temple, because rats are considered holy here! It was festival time so there were lots of people at the temple all in their Sunday best (e.g. their most colorful saris and highest turbans). It is considered most fortunate if you spot the white rat, we were lucky enough to see it – and plenty of its brown friends.