Lombok - From Gili T to Kuta L

After a few marvellous days in Ubud, our small group found itself on the road to Gili Trawangan.

Our mini bus to the coast was late (what a surprise...) and the boat ride was smooth. I was a bit concerned since you hear a lot of bad experiences on the boats connecting Indonesian island. All good eventually. There is no pier when you get to Gili T, the boat leaves you on the beach and picks up a new bunch of people for the route back.

Arriving in Gili T.

Our 4 nights stay on the island could be summed up by an quest to catch the sunset. We were not so lucky with the weather unfortunately as it rained most of the time. We were using the time on hand to play a lot of card games. The rain-free time was spent on the beach. This is pretty much all there is to do on the island. Then there're so many water sports activities - this archipelago is a world class diving area. Snorkeling was not too bad either. The crystal clear water, the white sand beaches make it a perfect location for doing nothing :D and we did just that :)

Well not exactly... but the lack of consistent nice weather did not push us to do more. Nice and relax some would say.

On my side I did go for an early morning run around the entire island (6.9km only).

West coast of Gili T with Bali landscape in the back.

In our quest for sun, Max and I decided to head to Lombok a few kilometres on the East of Gilis, hence leave our travel buddies for the past days. What a great time we have had and what an amazing bunch of people.

Happy people. We spent a bit more than a week together.

Instead of booking a fast boat we took the so called "public" boat... for 1 euro (15000 rupiahs). It felt like being on a nutshell and therefore no so safe. It was crowded with 60+ passengers compare to the 41 persons capacity of the boat... Safety first as they say!

We made it to the shore and hopped on a taxi to our hotel for the night north of Senggigi.

Bali from Longok (Senggigi). 

From a sunset point of view, this was almost as good as it got for us... not very lucky but nothing to complain about really. 

Max and I had to make a choice: North to the waterfall, or South to the beaches...

Since the weather forecast was better south, we decided to head there early morning and enjoy the (for once) sunny day burning on the beach.

Tanjung Aan beach in the south of Lombok

Mandalika beach in Kuta Lombok.

It turned out to be such a great idea as we bumped in friends on the beach in Sean and Chelsea. We had met with them on the beach in Canggu 2 weeks before this day and were stoked to catch up.

We made plans for the evening to watch the opening day of the 6 nations. Sean and I were really happy with this, despite the poor results of Ireland and France. 

The countdown until the day we were to leave Indonesia was ticking and showed 6 more days... We decided to come back to Bali the day after and discover the south of the island. This time, the ferry trip was like riding a rollercoaster and a lot of people on the fast boat found themselves sea sick. Throwing up everywhere... I slept like a baby - lucky me.
In what felt like a blink we around on Bali and 2 hours later we were checking in in a hotel close to famous Uluwatu temple.

New location, new friends, new adventures :)

Bali - more beaches around Uluwati and South Bali

Everyday was the more of the same: Food, Beach, Food, Beach, Food... Repeat!

All this shared with amazing company.

Besides Max, we had the lovely privilege to spend time with Frida and Anna our 2 new friends from Gothenburg.

A few things are worth mentioning:

- we saw a cobra crossing the road in front of us... I still have shivers in my spin just with the though of this. 

- monkeys are everywhere in South Bali. 

- police is corrupted in Bali. We got stopped on the side of the road and were ripped of around 20 euros for no good reason. While being "detained" were passing by next to us entire families without helmets ridding their bikes (imagine 4 human being going 60km/h without helmet... Safety first right!?

- the waves are BIG in South Bali and there is a lot of current, so we did not surf there. It is still possible to find beginner and intermediate level waves. We were happy to just enjoy the sun for once since we were not really lucky on that aspect throughout our adventures in Indonesia.

- beaches are amazingly beautiful in that part of Indonesia. We manage to see quite a few. Pandawa, Melasti, Nusa Dua, Uluwatu, Padang Padang, Thomas beach and my personal favorite: Green Bowl beach.

- I thought I had the best ever dessert in Ubud when I tried fried bananas with cheese... I was so wrong... The best dessert ever was to be found in Warung Lima close to the Uluwatu temple. This restaurant are cooking Spring rolls stuffed with bananas, chocolate and cheese.

Green Bowl Beach.

Sunset in Uluwatu.

Banana/chocolate/cheese spring roll.

Last night was great. Since Max and I were leaving Indonesia we decided to book ourselves a double room in a 4 stars hotel close to the airport. Needless to say the service was quality special, the swimming pool very much appreciated :D

Friends in the pool, doesn't get any better than this...

A bar in the pool is better :)

Reception woke us up as requested at 5am, transfer service took us to the airport at 6... it was time to say goodbye to my partner in crime Max. We had 3 wonderful weeks travelling together. He will be travelling 5 more months but I am sure that we will finally be playing Tennis this summer in Switzerland. 

For me, this was back where it all started a bit more than 2 months back, in Kuala Lumpur.

A last night in the same place I had my first night in Asia, a few new "last minute friends", one last "I met you 2 weeks ago in Canggu, isn't it", one last kebab, one last beer with great conpany (a very very odd Kronenbourg!!!), one last Taxi ride. It is time to go home and be thankful :)

What goes around, comes around. Last night in Bukit Bintang food market in Kuala Lumpur.

Ubud - Waterfalls, rice paddies and temples with new friends

After a small week on Bali with the feeling that I hadn’t seen any of the island or of the people, we headed Maxime and I to Ubud. Ubud is located right in the center of the island and his most known for its temples and its surrounding nature and volcanos.

Max and I are avid fans of Tennis and he is probably one of the most emotionally engaged fan I have ever met in my entire life… This became especially true when we arrived in Ubud, exactly during the Federer - Wawrinka semi final of the Australian open. Being Swiss, Max was proudly watching the match, supporting the incredible comeback of Roger into the highest spheres of the world of tennis. With Federer winning and Nadal on its way to the final, we were set for a nerve wracking match on Sunday afternoon! Since I am a massive Rafa supporter, the match was intense on court and off court in our local bar in Ubud. Max’s love for Roger, hate for Rafa and swearing during the final cannot possibly be matched and I was very happy for him that the outcome came his (and Roger's) way otherwise we were in for a moody, borderline sad few days… Anyway :) you have to give it to Roger thought. I don’t remember him turning things around like that in the 5th set being 3-1 down to win the match outplaying Nadal, aggressing him with raw class scoring some points that can only leave you wondering how long this guy is going to be able to pull out that kind of magic.

Of course our stay there were not limited to being in bars watching sports… far from it!

Our first full day there was probably the fullest I had so far during my holiday. We rented some scooters and went on to discover Ubud’s surroundings. We dragged a few new friends in our adventure: Sophie from London, Libby from Barcelona, and Sarah H. from Atlanta. Our small group made the most of the local highlights. In chronologic order we managed to visit Tegenungan waterfall, the hidden canyon Beji Guwang, the waterfall of Kanto Lampo, and the temple of Pura Tirta Empul.

Hidden canyon.

Small waterfall in the canyon.

Kanto Lampo waterfall.

Monster in Pura Tirta Empul

Hot spring in Pura Tirta Empul.

Pura Tirta Empul.  People queueing to be in contact the holly fountains and present offerings to the temple.

Back in Ubud I was dreaming to try again the amazing fried bananas with cheese (!!!) we had on our first diner in Ubud at the infamous Warung Ijo (a warung is a typical local restaurant - usually both good and cheap). Unfortunately for me and for the group it would have to be postponed to the following day since the kitchen had close before we could order dessert.

The next day was equally nice. Good company and my first ever yoga practice. Sarah was kind enough to introduce us to Yoga for an hour private lesson. The experience was great and I can’t wait to show you the timelapse I made out of it (I’ll share it either when back in Europe or when I find a good enough internet connection). 

Yoga!!! It was an amazing experience for me.

We went on to visit the Monkey forrest, a place full of … monkeys quite obviously. I learnt a few things along the way: 

Never Ever stare a monkey in the eyes as the little fella will perceive this as a sign of aggression.

Never touch a monkey… your little buddy can touch you and jump on your shoulder but do not touch it… This is a wild animal and not a pet. We witness an overly enthusiast Chinese tourist that learnt that the hard way.

Be careful with your belongings… Monkeys are smart little fuckers. One reached out to my pocket and managed to get away with my entrance ticket. I observed him helplessly tearing apparently the piece of paper.

These little creature are fantastic to observe. Their social interactions are so close to ours. I loved it.

Angry little monkey that just jumped off me trying to steal from my pocket.

Playful monkeys.

Daddy wants to play to.

That one did succeed to take my entrance out of my pocket. Happily tearing it appart.

We have faced few other species of local fauna: lizards of all size (from a few centimetres to more than half a meter), an emerald green snake, a lot of ducks (a local delicatessen), and countless colourful birds during our time walking around Ubud and its rice paddies. What a lovely photogenic place this is!

Scenic walk in Ubub.

Trail in the northern part of Ubud.

Our 5 units group decided to head East towards Lombok to go to the Gili Islands, an archipelago of 3 islands. Gili T (trawangan) will be our first stop.

Happy days!

Wandering in the streets of Ubud.
Libby, Sophie, Justin, Chad and Sarah :)

Sea, Surf and Sun (sometimes...) in Bali's wave heaven of Kuta and Canggu.

Here I am, the final country on my trip: Indonesia.

I had very little expectations whatsoever before coming as the only information I had on Bali was a few "it was awesome" from some friends that had travelled here and the memories of the movie Eat, Pray, Love I watched ages ago. The little I expected was a relaxing and spiritual atmosphere you get in the kind of places where there are waves to surf and temples to pray in.

From the airport, I decided to stay a few days in Kuta just a stones throw away of the airport. This is a surfer's town: you surf during the day and you party at night. My hostel; the Funky Monkey was located in a very small street in between the beach and the main road of the city. The swimming pool was really much appreciated and the constant flow of people made it entertaining: I was always with different people sharing travel experiences and tips while having loads of free pancakes offered by the hostel.

Kuta at sunset. One of the only pictures I took in 3 days.

While this is not exactly what I was expecting, I was lucky enough to meet and hang out with amazing people. I am going to mention here couple of guys I was lucky enough to meet: Sahel an inspiring broker from London with Afghan decent and Maxime a tennis addict from Switzerland.

I spend the first 3 days surfing and partying with both before Maxime and I headed north towards Canggu (pronounced Chan-Gu) while Sahel moved with one of his friends towards the center of Bali to more mystical lands.

Beach in Canggu with perfect wave for my low level.

Canggu is much quieter even if the parties there can get insanely wild. The day basically follows the rhythm of the waves. Max and I stayed 4 nights in another great hostel (with pool and again great company). Sharing our dorm, a funny dutch guy that happened to be my neighbour when I was living in Hilversum (!!!) and Charly a Belgian citizen. The world got even smaller for our small crew when Charly and I were speaking about music.

Charly loves acid, a kind of music I have close to no knowledge of.... The only information I know about Acid is that it is very popular in Belgium and there is quite a large audience in Antwerpen and Brugges. This I know from my friend and ex-colleague Luca... Luca is a DJ known in the industry as Acidolido. Well, Acidolido happens to be Charly's favorite artist! 

Mind. Blown. Instant friends just like with Max and Sahel before.

We spent time hanging out and got to meet Sean and Chelsea, a lovely couple teaching English in China, discovering the area and the infinite party options dancing on the beach until the early hours of the morning.

The pretty poison bar in Canggu with its skatepark in the middle of it!

A week has gone by in south Bali in a blink. Time flies when you are having fun. To be honest I did not do much besides surfing and meeting people (mostly around a Bintang, the local beer). But this is what travelling is all about, isn't it? 

I saw yesterday a brilliant post card that sum up perfectly my mood these days. It said:

Never blame anyone in Your Life

Bad people give you Experience

Worst people give you a Lesson

Good people give you Happiness

&

Best people give you Memories.

I am so lucky to be piling up so many memories. It is going to be hard to keep them all in my heart.

I was so busy having fun and relaxing I took very little pictures... I managed to find 3 okish ones to illustrate this post.

I will take so many more in Ubud, where Max and I are heading next. Stay tuned!

Kuala Lumpur (again) and Singapore for a couple of days!

Philippines has been something, that the least to say.

The people, their kindness, the beaches, the underwater world, the island, the parties...

After saying goodbye to Ronnie, I found myself in another airport on my way back to KL.

In the airport I got to speak to a Malaysian that happens to have twin boys. I guess the world do connect people based on commun characteristics, you just have to find out what it is.

In Kuala Lumpur I managed to visit one of the highlights I did not have time to see the first time around: Batu's Cave.

Batu's cave is this massive stairway to a big... cave.

The site is accessible by train and welcomes you with a massive golden statue.

That day was pouring rain, which makes the whole experience unbelievable: I had the site almost on my own and the rain gave a very chaotic and dramatic note.

After the visit I went to the bus station to head to Singapore, a 6 to 12 hours ride from KL (depending on traffic). My first bus got cancelled, the second one was delayed 1 hour. I left at 11pm.

I arrived in the city state very early morning. I had made an appointment to meet my friend Florian at 8 am and I was happy to have a walk in the empty city at sunrise, wandering through the business district and chinatown on my way to the cafe we were set to meet.

It was amazingly nice to meet Flo and Jackie, get to spend time with them and get some priceless advice on what to do in the city.

Tradition meets modernism in Chinatown.

For the first time since the half marathon in Cebu I went for a run. Even if Singapore is such a humid city, this is so nice to run around the bay and this amazing skyline.

Besides spending much of my time next to Flo's apartment in Chinatown and eating Chinese food in the food court (230+ food stalls to choose from - including a Michelin star restaurant where you can have a meal for around 2 euros... no jokes!!!) I went on to visit the ArtScience Museum.

The building is amazing! It is shaped like a hand open to the sky or a blooming lotus and composed of 3 levels hosting the 3 different exhibits:

- A Space oriented exhibit that takes you back to the race to space between USSR and USA.

- A very complete M.C. Escher expo where you can almost find more of his work that in his museum in The Netherlands

- An entire study / reflexion on where Arts meets Science. This part was very interactive and recreative.

This museum is more than a must to do in Singapore. I had so much fun and inspiration. That Crystal Universe is a thing of ultimate beauty.

The bay with Marina Sands on the right and the ArtScience Museum in the back.

It eventually reflected my entire stay in Singapore. Meeting incredibly nice and talented people (Flo knows how to surrender himself with this kind of human being). I am glad I had these 3 days and couldn't be more thankful to both Jackie and Flo for sharing their lives with me during my stays. 

Puerto Princesa and Back in Manila - Last couple of Days in the Philippines

Puerto Princesa is the door to that paradise that is Palawan. You often enter the island by its airport and you leave by this airport. And like a door the (almost) only point of it is to go through it. In that sense Puerto Princesa feels pretty much like door to me. No much to do or see in that small city. After 4 days in El Nido it takes a LOT to amaze oneself and Jeroen and I are at this point only looking forward to head back to Manila.

A nice cathedral, a WWII memorial, a nice (and empty) river side walk are among the things we saw in our hours spent there. Let’s not forget the mall here. We spent lunch time and I shopped in that local mall… This is probably the most Filipino experience we have. It seems like they love malls.

Another Filipino experience for me was to play some basketball with local kids (thanks for that amazing photo of live action Jeroen!). It was real nice to play with locals and I was probably happier than they were. We played 2x2 for a short time. It took just seconds before I was sweating like a pig while these kids looked fresh, as if it was not 30 degrees but 15 and there were having a walk in the park. Basketball is the national sport and I am glad I had that moment for myself.

Playing some hoops with local kids. Thanks Jeroen for the awesome picture.

We returned to Manila that night where we shared a succulent diner and drinks with Ronnie. Across the road we found ourselves dragged into the Ring Side, a place where we were to witness midget wrestling, midget boxing and midget dancing. Curiosity is bad but you have to sometimes feed it. This is all I am going to say about that business. I will rather encourage you to go see it for yourself and make yourself your own opinion. I preferred the bar we went to next - the rooftop bar of the Z Hostel.

After a few drinks it was the sad moment when I part ways with Jeroen and Andres.

They would both return to Switzerland.

Here is a picture of my Swiss gang in Chocolate Hills. Travelling will not be exactly the same without you guys. I am very thankful having your company for this time.

For now I will follow my adventure alone! 

My last day in Manila was cultural as I went on to discover the Intramuros part of Manila and mostly the Fort Santiago. This is a pivotal place in the history of the Philippines as it witness the execution of José Rizal a key person in the fight for this country's independence.

Dr Rizal is here portrayed in his cell the day he was executed.

A path of golden foot print pave his last walk toward his death by the Spanish colons. 

Paying tribute to this hero was a nice way to say good bye to this amazing country and the best host there possibly is over there: Ronnie. Thank you buddy, hopefully I can be as much of a good host when you visit Europe next time around.

Palawan - Discovering El Nido

I was not really inspired to find yet another title with bragging adjectifs qualifying the infinite beauty of a place. Palawan is - likewise Boracay - another regular member of rankings such as “Top 5 most beautiful islands in the world”.

While I can now say I have been in Palawan and stay on this island, the 4 days I had there and the very limited places I have seen have to be put in perspective. It was yet again the experience of a lifetime and I feel lucky to having wandered the beaches around El Nido.

El Nido is probably the most known corner of this island (in the North-West part) and it is naturally there that we headed from Puerto Princesa, where our flight from Cebu landed. I have been regularly writing about long commutes - that one was nowhere different from the others. Although there are “only” around 250 kilometres from Puerto to El Nido it took more than 5 hours to get there despite the driver of our van slaloming comfortably between the Jeepneys, the motorbikes and the tricycles overpopulating the roads. Thankfully our pension was on the side of the main road 3 kilometres from the village of El Nido and we where dropped of there already late at night.

We couldn’t see much from the hotel room and sleep was most needed when we arrived. We would get our reward from all the commuting when we woke up by discovering the view.

Of course it is impossible to compare one location to another, one island in Thailand in the Caribbean or in Polynesia to its filipino cousin’s without loosing any kind of objectivity. It is definitely a matter of taste and often depends of one’s experience in a given corner of the planet. My experience in El Nido together with the great time I had there made it very special… And man that view!

And the greatest part is that it is at least as beautiful under the over than on (is)land.

I won't say much more about El Nido besides that it was the first time since The Challenge in Ko Pha Ngan (22nd of December) that I was going in the water (more than the time of a shower obviously). Jeroen and Andres enjoyed the wonderful big blue world for  a few dives and I join them on the boat to snorkel in the same areas. 

I spend to much time in the water that I got burnt real bad on the back... This is the risk you are less expose to when diving... or wearing sun proof clothes or sun protection.

Here are some pictures I took with the GoPro. No filters or adjustments made only cropping and rotating the pictures :D Amazing time that was.

I got to swim 10 minutes with this buddy.

Coral and fishes. Zoom in to see the little blue ones in the Coral.

The Table Coral, one of my favorite underwater picture.

Angry Nemo coming at me, protecting his little one.

Sunset in Las Cabanas Beach.