28.09.-29.09.2013 München – Kuta, Bali

After a few weeks at home, I spontaneously decided to fly away again – to Indonesia. In Munich I boarded an Emirates plane to Jakarta via Dubai, and from there I continued to Denpasar, Bali. This is where I met Mathijs again; we would be travelling together over the next few weeks. In Kuta we organised a few things, had a bit of party time, bought a few things and otherwise simply relaxed. It’s not the most beautiful place to be, but it is a good starting point for a journey towards the east…

30.09.2013 Kuta – Padang Bai, Bali

At lunchtime, we took a bus from Kuta to Padang Bai. Padang Bai is a pleasant little fishing village that only ever gets animated during the times of the daily boat transfers to Bali and to the Gili Islands. There are innumerable tour agencies offering for example trekking tours to Gunung Rinjani on Lombok, a tour we booked right away. We also strolled along the little beach and enjoyed the calm – a contrast to Kuta.

01.10.2013 Padang Bai – Senggigi – Senaru, Lombok

What a long travel day! It began early in the morning on a slow boat to Lombok, which was just as slow as its name would suggest.

Arriving in the harbour, we were transferred to Senggigi, where we were brought to our tour agency and waited for the pickup to Senaru. We finally arrived when it was already dark and we were incredibly tired…

02.10.-04.10.2013 Gunung Rinjani, Lombok

I have to say straight away: The trekking tour up the Gunung Rinjani was the most strenuous hike I have ever done. And another thing: Sadly, I didn’t make it to the peak. We were in a crazily sporty group, and many group members in the front were practically running uphill. This meant that I used up my energy quicker than usual and it was also a little bit demotivating 😉 The landscape was wonderful in the beginning, though. Volcanos have their own charm! 🙂
The first day was long and tough, but in the evening we camped at the edge of the crater and were rewarded by the fantastic view over the crater lake.

The night was relatively short, for we had to get up at 1:30 a.m. to pack up and leave for the peak. The first bit of the way was very tough right away, and unfortunately due to a misunderstanding I lost Mathijs and had to shuffle through the dark alone. I got caught somewhere in the middle – too slow for the fast walkers, too fast for the slow ones. Some 40 minutes before the peak, I had to give up. The ground only consisted of loose scree and I was sliding backwards more than I was advancing. The sun had already risen a while ago, and neither my group nor my guides were anywhere to be seen. All alone, I didn’t manage to motivate myself to carry on, so I turned back. Due to my bad mood, I didn’t take a lot of pictures, even though the landscape was in fact truly beautiful.
In a different group I would probably have made it to the peak and would have been able to enjoy the morning more. Later the same day, we went down to the crater lake, where it was possible to swim (brrrrr!).
The hot springs nearby were much more inviting.
Afterwards, we had to walk back up the whole way we had come down to get to our new campsite next to the crater – and again there was a stunning view of the crater lake.
The last day, we only went downhill in a leisurely way. This was my favourite part of the hike – I really enjoy going down a mountain!! 🙂 Many people complained about muscle pain, etc. Well, part of me couldn’t help thinking… if only you lot had started off a little slower and not worn yourself out so much! For I myself was feeling just dandy 🙂 But it’s for everybody to decide for themselves how they approach things. The landscape on the tour was really great, but a trip to the edge of the crater would have been enough for me (this is also what many travellers do). 🙂

05.10.-06.10.2013 Senggigi / Kuta / Motorbike Tour, Lombok

We arrived in Senggigi in the evening of 4 October and decided to explore the island by motorbike over the next two days. We went across the island to get to Kuta – for on Lombok there is a beach bearing the same name as the one on Bali. Only much nicer! Still – it wasn’t as great as I had expected.
So we cruised on along the coast towards the east and discovered some really splendid bays.
We spent the night in Kuta and the next day we visited Lombok’s southwest. This is where we found the beach of our dreams!! I don’t have much of an eye for distances, but I’d say the beach was about 3 km long – and completely deserted! White sand, turquoise water, simply amazing 🙂

07.10.-10.10.2013 Kencana Boat Tour, from Lombok to Flores

There are several possibilities to get from Lombok to Flores: You can a) fly, b) enjoy a bus trip of 30 hours or c) go on a 4 day boat trip where you can go snorkelling every day (including sightings of manta ray!!), stop at isolated islands, explore hidden waterfalls and have heaps of relaxing time in-between activities, simply doing nothing 🙂 Guess which of the three choices we went for! 😉

We had four wonderful days with a great group of people from all over the world. The highlight was a stint to Komodo National Park. We went to Komodo and to Rinca, where you can look for Komodo dragons during your hikes. We did spot some in the wilderness; although most of them spend their time lazily lying around near the restaurant, waiting for food waste…
The best moment for me was a little hike up a hill for a viewpoint – simply spectacular!!The tour ended in Labuan Bajo, where we spent another night with the rest of the group, with lots of fun and drinks.

11.10.-13.10.2013 Labuan Bajo, Flores

Labuan Bajo is one of the ugliest towns I have ever been to. No beauty and nothing to do, expect going on a tour to Komodo NP and scuba diving. As we had already seen Komodo dragons, we rested for a day and then spent the next two days on dives.

To be brief: Komodo National Park is not without reason known as one of the best diving spots in the world! All 6 dives were brilliant! We saw innumerable sharks, colourful corals, gigantic fish shoals aaaaand about 15 manta rays!!! We had a whale of a time. And most of the time there was a strong current, either prompting us to hold onto rocks or propelling us forward at high speed. Loved it!!! 🙂 Unfortunately, none of the divers took any pictures…

14.10.2013 Labuan Bajo – Bajawa, Flores

We spent this day in a bus. The trip was about 14 hours long, instead of the expected 10. It was long, boring and tiring.

15.10.2013 Bajawa, Flores

Bajawa is a small village in the mountains of Flores. There are some traditional villages nearby, where we went by motorcycle.
We also wanted to see the volcano lakes at Wawo Muda – but then we lost our way and never actually got there. Nevertheless we had great views and our motorcycle tour was really good: we drove across the land in a real off-road fashion…
It was fun, but I was also glad I didn’t have to drive myself 😉

16.10.2013 Bajawa – Moni, Flores

Another long bus journey. The roads on Flores are narrow and bendy, and the buses do not have a lot of horse power. So even short distances can take a while… but we eventually did arrive in Moni!

17.10.2013. Moni, Flores

Moni is a teeny-tiny village near Kelimutu National Park. Kelimutu is a volcano sporting three crater lakes in different colours. The best time to visit is early morning, for the sunrise. From a viewpoint, you can watch the sun rise behind the lakes – wonderful!! 🙂 Did I mention how much I love volcanos!? Volcanic landscapes are breathtakingly beautiful, time and again.
Equally nice were the rice fields we found on our way back. A fantastic surprise; while it was still dark, we had passed them without even realising…
After breakfast, we spent the rest of the day cruising around on our motorbike. Flores has amazing nature and sooo many friendly people live there, who waved to us from the side of the road, shouted “hellooooo”, and children wanted to high-five us. It was fun! 🙂

18.10.2013 Moni – Maumere, Flores

We were in luck: For the last part of our journey on Flores we found a half-private liftshare, so the trip was short and relatively comfortable. Did I say that Labuan Bajo is ugly!? That was before I saw Maumere. Definitely one of the ugliest towns I have ever seen.
People here were not friendly, but uncomfortably pushy. Infrastructure for tourism: zero. Restaurant choice: none. We ran into two German girls, though, who knew an Indonesian person half acting as their guide who wanted us to join him for a wedding. Of course we went! It certainly was an experience, but a pretty weird one. The newly-weds were sat on some sort of stage and in front of them there were rows of chairs for the guests, like in a theatre. Bride and groom were accompanied by applause while they accepted gifts, hands were being shaken, many picture poses and extremely artificial pictures were taken. The bride’s smile ended up looking rather forced 😉 Well, it was still an interesting experience!

19.10.2013 Maumere – Wodong, Flores

We wanted to spend our last days on Flores relaxing on the beach. For this purpose, we rented a motorcycle in Maumere and drove along the coast in the direction of Wodong. On our way we stopped at various beaches and places to stay until we found a perfect beach cabin 🙂
20.10.-23.10.2013 Wodong, Flores

The next few days, we relaxed a looooot.
One day, we did muster the energy to visit one last volcano. Mount Egon is the highest mountain/volcano in East Flores, but you can drive your motorbike far up on the street and then it’s only a 2-3 hours walk to the crater. And again I was fascinated by the volcanic landscape. Mount Egon is still highly active; many big and small holes seethe and smoke. It is a fabulous spectacle and you feel really small next to the gigantic crater. What a nice ending to our Indonesian volcano experience!

24.10.2013 Maumere – Makassar – Jakarta – München

On the afternoon of 23 October, we had to leave our relaxing paradise Wodong and head back into my “favourite” city Maumere. We had planned to enjoy a lovely dinner on our last evening together – but in this city, it wasn’t possible. What a pity! The next day we had an early start – a small propeller plane took us from Maumere to Makassar. There, I had to wait 5 hours for my connection to Jakarta and then take two more flights to get back to Europe – my definite return home. Sadly, in Makassar I also had to say goodbye to Mathijs again…
The weeks in Indonesia were a wonderful addition and brought my travels to a pleasant end. I could again feel the special freedom unique to long-term travels. I saw spectacular landscapes and had many amazing experiences. Yes, I’m happy I set out one last time, and it was definitely more than worth it! 🙂

People: In Sulawesi you don’t meet a lot of other tourists and therefore form a (necessary) group with the ones you do meet quickly. I have mixed memories of the locals in Sulawesi: On the one hand you were a sensation as a tourist and welcomed openly, people were pointing at you, giggling and everyone wanted to take hundreds of pictures in all kind of different family combinations. On the other hand, exactely all of this was sometimes getting a bit exhausting. In addition, people were smoking always and everywhere (even in a closed bus) and the men were sometimes uncomfortably pushy as soon as I was travelling by myself 😦

Food: Food in Sulawesi was nothing compared to Malaysia – there was just not a lot of variety in it. Mostly it was fried fish/chicken with dry rice – these were the two standard dishes. On Bunaken I ate very well in my accommodation – but it’s under German management… 😉

Weather: Unfortunately the rain didn’t let go of me, even in Sulawesi. It often rained for longer periods of time nonstop. Luckily there were also lots of sunny days in between and real heat, for example on the Togean Islands…

Costs: Sulawesi was actually quite cheap, but I did a lot of diving and often had to charter a car with driver together with other backpackers, which was costly. My daily costs averaged at 20€, respectively 31€ incl. diving.

Accommodation: I had everything! A nice beach bungalow for myself, an extremely disgusting mattress which you really didn’t want to touch in a stuffy room smelling of cigarettes… variety was taken care of 😉

Infrastructure: There is not a lot of infrastructure on Sulawesi yet. Even between big cities there is often only one bus a day or even every couple of days. Often it is unclear, when the next bus could go. There are also not a lot of cars on the roads outside the cities – a bit more in the South. That’s why it’s very common (even for locals…for a lower price…) to charter a car with a driver – often the only option to get from A to B. The roads are in catastrophic conditions and are among the worst I have ever seen. Hence, driving times are ridiculously long for even just a couple of kilometers…

Illnesses: Luckily everything was fine – Sulawesi really is not a place where I would want to be sick…

Safety: I never really felt unsafe but the pushy guys were exhausting sometimes!

Highlight: Diving in Pantai Bira! Everything was perfect and I felt really good there 🙂

Lowlight: Everywhere, and I do mean everywhere and ALWAYS you are surrounded by smoking locals – it often stinks soooo much! 😦

Click here for my pictures of Sulawesi:

09.05.-10.05.2013 Manado

My adventure in Indonesia started with a little chaos: Slightly bleary-eyed (having spent the night at the airport) I boarded a plane from Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta. Once there, I heard that I needed to collect my luggage despite the fact that I had a connection flight, and I had to check it in again. Ok. Suddenly, I see a sign saying “Visa On Arrival”. Right… something’s stirring in my memory. I need a visa. I think: I believe I have to pay for that. How much was that again? Do I even have any dollars left? Luckily there was an ATM next to the counter where I could withdraw Indonesian rupiah to pay for my visa. Maybe I got a little ripped-off – I obviously had no idea of the current exchange rate. Well then, off to the counter to get my stamp.

Officer: Where your flight ticket?

I (assuming he meant my connection flight to Manado): Must be with all these other papers (indicating the wad of documents including my passport, the visa form etc.).

Officer: No, flight for leave Indonesia!

I (thinking: Shit. Shit. Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit. Completely slipped my mind that they want to see a return ticket. It’s the requirement for a Visa On Arrival. Damn, will he let me pass now? I broke out in a sweat.): Ermmm. Hmmm. Ermmm. I don’t have right now. I will book soon. I will go to Australia next. BIG SMILE.

Officer discusses briefly with his colleagues, then bangs down the stamp (wham!).

Officer: I think next time maybe better you get flight before.

I (thinking: Yaaaaaaaay!!!!! How great’s that!!!!): Yes, of course.

And I was in! Oh man, this could have just as well gone wrong… so off I went to my connection flight to Manado, then took a taxi to the Manado Grace Inn, a reasonably good hotel and my place to stay for one night.

10.05.-14.05.2013 Bunaken

The next day, I met up with Ferdinand, a German traveller I had met on Borneo. We happened to arrive in Manado on the same day and decided to explore Sulawesi together. After running a few errands, we went to the harbour at 3 p.m. where we could join a boat of the Panorama Resort.

The following two days were dedicated to two activities: scuba diving and chilling! J I did 5 dives, 4 of them being really great (the last one was spoilt by an incompetent dive master).

At Bunaken, there are amazing steep faces and visibility is quite good, but unfortunately there are also many ever-changing currants, so we had to change direction quite a lot. I saw many, many small riff fish, some turtles, pygmy seahorses, ghost pipefish, scorpionfish, frogfish, large shoals of fish, pufferfish, filefish, more nudibranchs, of course, etc. etc. It was great that we could always stay underwater as long as air supply and NDL would allow, and I set my personal diving record of 93 minutes. Yay! 🙂 In the mornings/afternoons, when I wasn’t on the boat, I enjoyed the beautiful view at the Resort and spent my time reading…

14.05.2013 Bunaken – Gorontalo

On a long travel day, we went from Bunaken to Gorontalo: First, we had to go back to Manado and get a few things done there. Then, at 2 p.m., we shared a Jeep vehicle (Kijang) for a 10 hour drive to Gorontalo. An extremely long and relatively unspectacular trip. Did I mention it was LONG!? :p Much music, some sleep, one stop for a nice dinner. Shortly before Gorontalo, we saw many flooded areas; entire houses were under water. Luckily, the Jeep made its way through and we safely reached New Melati Hotel.

15.05.2013 Gorontalo – Marisa

I woke up at around 6 a.m. – just wanting to use the bathroom – and realised that our room was flooded! A closer look revealed the scope of the mishap: In the room, the water was about 10cm high, the bathroom (set a little lower) was impossible to use, more water flowed in as soon as we opened the door… The whole hotel was flooded!
Unfortunately I had put my netbook on the floor and it was obviously dead now – so I thought. A few days later it suddenly worked again: I hereby highly recommend Asus Eee Netbooks!!! 🙂 We spent our day in Gorontalo helping to clean up and waiting for our pickup. At 7 p.m. our driver, Mr. Sadik, came and brought us to Marisa in 4 hours. We spent the night at his family’s house, for there are no hotels in Marisa… The place was so shockingly poor and dirty that I didn’t dare take any pictures…

16.05.-21.05.2013 Togean Islands

In the morning, Mr. Sadik brought us to Bumbulan, the port where boats leave for the Togean Islands. Our boat left at 8 a.m. and we arrived in Dolong, Pulau Walea Kodi at 2:30 pm.Ikbal was already waiting for us and brought us to Sifa Cottages. Another hour spent on a boat – but afterwards we were rewarded by paradise. See for yourself!
The next days we relaxed a lot, reading and lying around in hammocks. One day, we (all 5 guests together) went on a daytrip to Jellyfish Lake – a lake where you can snorkel with non-stinging jellyfish. It was brilliant, we could actually touch the jellyfish and play with them – they don’t burn you at all!
After that, we went to a wonderful beach nearby for a lunch picnic and (in my case) another round of snorkelling.
It is also nice to snorkel directly at the beach of Sifa! Of course I also went on two dives – and especially liked a spot between Reef 1 and Reef 2. It was like being in an aquarium and I finally saw an eagle ray again! 🙂 The Togean Islands really are an untouched paradise…

21.05.-22.05.2013 Lake Poso

After a few days I had to leave this paradise and from Malenge we left by boat to Ampana, where we were able to share a car to Tentena with three other tourists – an 8 hour drive. We were shattered when we arrived shortly before midnight… The next day, Ferdinand and I rented a motorbike and drove around a bit. We saw a very beautiful waterfall…
The landscape there and also the large Lake Poso are truly beautiful – a nice stop on the way to Tana Toraja!

23.05.2013 Tentena – Rantepao

Organising our onward journey to Tana Toraja turned out to be a challenge. There is only one direct bus per day (which leaves in the afternoon and not in the morning, as stated in LP), but according to the locals it is usually already full when it arrives and getting a seat is a matter of luck. Kijangs (shared Jeeps) prices were extortionate, even though we had already found four other tourists and could divide the rate by six. In the end, we found a bus that went up to Palopo (9hrs), where we could hire a car to take us to Rantepao in 2 more hours. Travelling on Sulawesi demands a lot of patience, because it takes so looooong. 😉 Sometimes the bus would just get stuck on the “street”, or the breaks had to be cooled with water for several minutes…

24.05.-28.05.2013 Tana Toraja / Rantepao

I stayed five full days in Tana Toraja. It really is a nice place which has a lot to offer in terms of nature and culture. On the first day, six of us shared a guide and a car, but that was quite a failure (we had more knowledge than the guide). At least he did bring us directly to a ceremonial site where a funeral was just taking place.
Funerals in Tana Toraja are big feasts lasting several days during which innumerable pigs and buffalos are being slaughtered. We were able to see some pig slaughters, and also watched as the animals were being taken apart afterwards… Unfortunately, we only saw live buffalos, though – they are spectacularly fat animals. The richer a family, the more buffalos they sacrifice. Albino buffalos are especially valuable…
A very interesting spectacle which didn’t seem very macabre at all to me.
Next on our list were Londa and Lemo – two burial sites where the coffins are either strung to rock faces or stored in caves. The entrances to the latter are guarded by dolls that resemble the dead, called Tau Tau.
Finally, we went to Kambira, to the baby tombs. If a baby dies before it grows teeth, it is buried in a tree (laid in a hole in the trunk which is then closed). According to the local belief, the baby can then continue to live and grow with the tree.
In the evening we sat together in a nice group and drank our way through quite some bottles of Bintang… meaning that the next day was mostly lost on us 😉 Over the next few days, we rented motorcycles together with an English and a Spanish traveller and explored the area. We visited Palatokke – another burial place (not so impressive) – and Kete Ketsu, a traditional village. It is clearly polished for tourists, but the houses are really in very good condition! I liked it very much there…
Luckily, we also came at the right time to pay a visit to Bolu market, a large market where next to fruit, vegetables, fish and the like you can mostly buy buffalos and pigs – most of them are purchased especially for funeral sacrifices. It was a unique experience to amble among bellowing buffalos and shrieking pigs…
We also drove through large parts of northern Tana Toraja, which sports amazing rice terraces and surprised us with fabulous views. And along the way there were again and again traditional houses, a little bit like in a fairy tale… 🙂

29.05.-02.06.2013 Pantai Bira

I took a night bus from Rantepao to Makassar, said goodbye to Ferdinand and, alone again, made my way to Bira in the south. This sounds easier than the actual stressful situation was: Arrival at 5 am, umpteen annoying taxi drivers, pushy men, people wanting to take pictures of me (at this time of the day? No thanks!!!!); nobody wants to give me the right information, nobody speaks English… But somehow I did manage to arrive here in the end:

And it was worth the trouble! I spent incredibly great days in Bira, went on 6 dives and enjoyed the wonderful underwater world. There is only one scuba diving school here (Bira Divers – I recommend them!!), even though the diving spots are world class. A (yet?) unexplored paradise, and during my very first dive there an absolute dream of mine came true: I saw a MANTA ray!!!! 🙂 🙂 Once, I walked to the Bira boat farmers. They build gigantic boats in painstaking manual work!
Time in Bira thus passed far too quickly, what with the dives, the nice company at the diving school and among the backpackers – and yummy food. It was a stunningly beautiful ending to my travels in Sulawesi and Indonesia!