Indonesia

Nusa Lembongan, a quiet little island just about an hour off the coast, was a welcome change after 2 weeks on Bali. While it had been raining a lot the days before, the weather was just perfect when we arrived on Lembongan. Our Bungalow at Ketut Losmen, right next to the beach, was the ideal place for relaxing, reading and calming down from travelling and shopping.

And, at least as important, the surf was great from the day we arrived. It really is an amazing place, with totally clear water and the view of fishes swimming in the coral reef below you and the Gunung Agnung volcano on the horizon when you're in the water, waiting for waves to surf.

Renting a motorbike is a great way of exploring the island. You can snorkel outside the mangroves and discover some more small bays and beaches.

On the last day, we still got the chance to see a traditional ceremony in the village. Actually, we got no clue what the whole thing was about, but probably the people were praying and sacrificing to scare off evil spirits and please the good ones.

After finishing this entry, we're off to Dreamland again for the last one and a half days. On staturday night, our flight leaves for Melbourne and soon "real life" starts again...

We'll keep you postet!

After more than a week of shopping and sightseeing in Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur we finally arrived on Bali - pretty stressed out and ready for a relaxing holiday at the end of our trip.

It would still take a few days until we could really enjoy our stay on Bali though. Everyone who has ever been to Kuta (the main tourist area of the island) knows what it's like: hundreds of shops and motorbikes, people try to sell anything you can imagine or want to transport you to the other end of the island, when you actually want to go to the beach to relax in the sun or surf. Julia had the impression that it was even worse compared to when she was on Bali 4 years ago. Still it was nice that some locals still recognised her from her last holiday, especially the friendly staff of Mekar Jaya Bungalows and also a masseuse on the beach.

Definitely worse than the last time was the water quality with thousands of dead fish (which supposedly died from some poisonous red alges) and rubbish.

After two days of surfing in the stinky waters we had enough and decided to rent a car to get to some more pleasant places of the island.
The first day, we went to the Bukit peninsula in the south. After spending a few hours at lovely Dreamland Beach we visited Ulu Watu Temple which is situated in a spectacular location on top of some 70m high cliffs facing the sea.

We also stopped at Ulu Watu surf beach and Padang Padang - but as the waves were pretty small, there was not too much going on.
On the way back we went to Jimbaran Bay for a classical and romantic seafood barbecue on the beach (you can choose the fish you'd like to have before they put in on the barbeque).

The second day, we drove to the north to Taman Ayun Temple, followed by the important Tanah Lot Temple on the seaside. This temple is particularly famous for its unique location on a rock, surrounded by water, and its beautiful sunsets. While several Balinese were praying and bringing oblations, other locals were "playing surf" right next to the temple.

For the following days we had planned to just go surfing and did a trip to Turtle Island. The waves were pretty good and winds were offeshore. But while Julia was enjoying the surf, Frank unfortunately hurt his ribs in the same way as he did on the Philippines. After the long paddle, his muscels and tissue were inflamed so badly, he could hardy move and we even had to go to hospital!

As Frank had to keep quiet and the weather and swell forecast didnt look very good, we decided to go to Ubud for a few days, the centre of culture, arts and crafts. From there, we did a roundtrip to the central mountains in the north. We visited the hindu and buddhist temple of Danau Bratan and went to the beautiful Git Git Waterfalls after that.

The next days we were just chilling, having a massage each day, swimming in the pool and enjoying the great food in Ubud (where you can really get everything you want, from Balinese buffets, delicious babi guling (that's spofacki for our Bavarian readers) to homemade pastas and fresh salads).

As Frank loves birds, we also had to go to the Bali Bird Park, which was pretty expensive, but definitely worth the money.

And who ever thought, that only girls are shopping addicts - in our case it is the absolute opposite. After Frank already bought some more shirts in Kuta (cos he still hasn't got enough, he only bought 15 t-shirts, 4 pairs of jeans, 2 suits and 3 shirts in Bangkok and another 3 shirts and a pair of trainers in Kuala Lumpur) he walked up and down the roads of Ubud for masks, watches and a silver bracelet. Well, at least this time he didn't buy anything (just to continue a week later in Kuta again - that time he got another pair of trainers and underwear).

On the last night in Ubud, we went to see the traditional Legong and Barong dance in Ubud Palace, which was a great to watch.

Sunday 24 December, we went to Medan by ferry - horrible trip, it was supposed to take 4 hours, in the end it took 7 but at least we didn't drown!
From Medan we went straight on to Parapat at Lake Toba on an even worse journey:
Imagine the following - turn up your car stereo at top volume, now double it and play marusha in a never ending loop. Try, whilst driving on the other people's lane, at top speed (for Indonesian mini busses 80km/h this is), to avoid hitting any car driving in your direction. At the same time honk for every car/pedestrian/bicyclist/motorbike/dog/... you want to overtake and honk again if you successfully did so (adds up to an estimated 12456 honks per hour). Do this at night time with hardly working headlights.

Unfortunately we didn't make it to Tuk Tuk, our actual destination in Sumatra as we arrived at 9 pm, just a bit too late to catch the last ferry to the island in Lake Toba. As a result we had to celebrate christmas in a not so comfortable and quite expensive hotel with rather sticky bed sheets. At least we bumped into Santa Claus on our way to the restaurant (nice place but we had to take care of eventual dog dishes appearing on the menu), who was accompanied by a big band on a truck and plenty of supporters. Most of the population is catholic and these guys really know how to celebrate christmas!

In the morning of 25 December we crossed the lake to Tuk Tuk and spent the next 3 days with former canibals ; )

NB: The people of Lake Toba, called Bataks were of a canibal background a mere 200 years ago. Two European missionairs did their best to convince them to restrain from canibalism with success, however only after they got eaten as well.

Most of the time we spent with doing nothing at all. Only one day we rented some mountain bikes for a couple of hours and the other day some motor bikes to explore the island a bit which is a really chilled out and peaceful place.

Thursday we left Tuk Tuk to go to Bukit Lawang, a natural reservoir for orang utans. After a 12 hour journey (for only 300 km) we arrived at the Jungle Inn, a nice place to stay, just at the entrance of the reservoir. In the end it was definitely worth the trouble of getting there (taxi and public bus this time, still Indonesian marusha on public bus at full volume, with twice as many people on the bus as were actually able to fit in). On our second day we did a 3 hours jungle treck where we were able to see about 5 orang utans some of them even carried babies (the youngest one was only 2 months old). We were even allowed to feed them bananas which was a great experience!

The idea of the project is to get young orang utans, that were captured and seperated from their mothers by hunters, back into their natural environment. This can take several years of keeping the animals in quarantine, so that they can learn how to survive in wildlife. After this period most orang utans stay in the area of the feeding platform, where they get milk and bananas twice per day. After a while they get bored of this simple menu and will search for other fruits in the jungle until they make their own ways.

Two days later, on Saturday we went back to Penang. This time by plane which we almost missed (the public bus took 5 instead of 3 hours for 80 km to Medan, because of all kinds of interferences - picking up building materials, coconuts and all other things you can think of on its way!)

So now we are back in Penang to celebrate new year. We didn't know it but it seems like the biggest party in Malaysia is going to happen right here - about 100.000 people are expected to celebrate new year's eve on a massive open air beach party which kicked off already 9 hours ago. It's about time we get moving ...

... happy new year to all of you and still ... merry christmas! : )

- sorry it took so long to add in pictures! it really depends on the connection to the internet and the facilities whether we are able to add in pitures or even to check emails, please be patient with us -

By now we are already on the Phillipines. We will tell you about here and our time in the Cameron Highlands and Kuala Lumpur soon!