Sydney – and once across the outback!

August 19, 2013 Just Booked A Trip Ein Kommentar

07.06.-14.06.2013 Sydney

At Kuala Lumpur I took a cheap and direct overnight Air Asia Flight to Sydney. I expected immigration procedures to be very complicated, but it was actually really easy to enter. My tip: Declare something at customs (get in the Red Line), then you’ll be searched and questioned less and everything is much quicker… 😉 The first few days in Sydney I spent on Bondi Beach, where I could stay with a couple I had met in La Paz.

Bondi Beach and surroundings are absolutely beautiful – great cliffs and (during winter) deserted beaches!

Another night, I met another girl I know from my time in South America.
DSC00058 [50%] On Friday night, I was introduced to the classic party area King’s Cross, and on Saturday I could enjoy the Light Festival “Vivid”, during which some buildings in Sydney’s inner city are nicely illuminated; the Opera House was especially great.
On Sunday, I moved to Kevin’s place; I had met him in Borneo. I joined him and two of his friends at a Dash Berlin (a Dutch Trance DJ) party, which was awesome! 🙂 The next day was quiet as a result. On Tuesday I discovered Sydney town centre together with Kevin, especially visiting the harbour, of course.
We also stopped at various small bays where we had excellent views across the city.
On Wednesday I had a day trip into the Blue Mountains. We were unlucky with the weather at first: grey, dense fog, a sprinkle of rain. Hiking wasn’t really on the menu, under these conditions, nor was a good view.
Fortunately, the sky cleared in the afternoon, though, and I could see the Three Sisters after all! A really wonderful view…
The next day we went to the beaches north of Sydney – from Palm Beach to Manly Beach. During winter, all beaches are deserted and fantastically beautiful.
Only Manly didn’t appeal to me so much, for it was quite touristy. On our last day in Sydney, we went for a long walk through Centennial Park, a gigantic park with nice lakes and many different birds.
We then spent a cultural afternoon in art galleries of the most varied kinds – I was especially taken by the White Rabbit Gallery, where we participated in a guided tour.

15.06.-21.06.2013 Alice Springs and surroundings

I spent a night at the airport and then started my way to Alice Springs early in the morning. At the airport, I met Marta from Poland, whom I had met via Couchsurfing. Together, we booked the typical Alice Springs 3 day trip that covers King’s Canyon, Kata Tjuta and Uluru. The tour was really great: A fabulous group (20 people), sleeping outdoors in “swags”, excellent and abundant food – and obviously the sights themselves! The weather didn’t really work for us, unfortunately; it was mostly cloudy, which doesn’t do a lot of good to pictures. 😉 During our hike through King’s Canyon it even rained a bit – but the Canyon was still very impressive!
Kata Tjuta was awesome, too – gigantic red rocks, lined up in wavy shapes. It’s difficult to describe – so I’ll let the pictures speak for me:
Uluru was still my highlight. We were lucky and had enough time to admire it from all angles and at different hours.
I was amazed by our walk around the entire rock, where we could see the various faces of Uluru.
I regret to say that most people in the group decided to mount the rock (only 2 of them succeeded) – despite the Aboriginal people expressly requesting that this be not done. For Aboriginal Australians, Uluru is a sacred place. It is sad to see that there are such disrespectful people 😦

Back in Alice Springs, we did another day trip to Palm Valley – by 4WD. And those streets were really the right streets for 4WD! The tour was great – we saw wild horses and rock-wallabies…
And nature in the MacDonnell Ranges is truly amazing and our guide really knew what he was talking about…
We took another day to visit Alice Springs a bit – the Royal Flying Doctors’ base (which is just a very small museum, unfortunately) and the School of Air, where they teach children living in the outback, far away from any civilisation. They are equipped with webcam and live chat and it was very interesting to see this setup. We could even watch a lesson live! 🙂

22.06.-03.07.2013 Roadtrip Alice Springs – Darwin

The following day, I started my journey from Alice Springs to Darwin. This part of my travels I spent together with Jasper from Holland, who I had met via Gumtree.
DSC01598 [50%] Summing it all up, it was a great road trip: We slept in the car, mostly camping in the wild, had a campfire every evening and improvised meals on a little gas cooker.
We went down endless straight roads, being the only ones around for kilometres at a time.
Of course we also saw a lot: First, we took a detour to the West MacDonnell Ranges to visit various gorges and water holes. Some of them were really nice and we did a few pleasant walks.
The most remarkable stop was Devil’s Marbles, which I’ve always wanted to see. Rocks lie around like gigantic red marbles, spread across the land… incredibly impressive! 🙂
There is a smaller version, “The Pebbles”, a little further away, and we found a nice camping spot there.
Naturally, we didn’t leave out Katherine Gorge either, although unfortunately the viewpoint only reveals the entry to the gorge – the rest of it is only accessible on an expensive boat tour.
Edith Falls is well worth a visit, too – a waterfall with a large pond, nicely inviting for a refreshing bath. We also went to the Kakadu National Park, of course. Starting at the southern entrance, we drove in a circle, stopping at all the important sights. During those days, we did many little hikes, although most of them led through more or less unspectacular landscape. The really beautiful spots could mostly be reached directly by car. An exception being the splendid Gunlom Falls, where you can hike up to the natural ponds – and swim there with a great view! 🙂
The sunset over Yellow Water was nice, too, even though we were by far not the only ones there…
We dedicated almost an entire day to the Aboriginal rock art. There are 2 famous rock art places in the Kakadu NP: Nourlangie and Ubirr. We did 3 ranger guided tours there, which are short tours led by a ranger telling you about various paintings and the lifestyle of the Aboriginal people. It’s hugely interesting, and without a guide you couldn’t make much sense of the paintings…
DSC01892 [50%] We did 3 more such tours in Ubirr and then watched the amazing sunset. I definitely liked Ubirr best within the Kakadu NP!
The next day, we already left Kakadu and drove on to Litchfield National Park. On our way, we stopped at the Jumping Croc Cruises: You go on a boat trip and the crew looks for crocodiles. As soon as they see one, they tempt it with fresh meat bait on a sort of fishing rod. This makes the crocodile jump out of the water and thus show its full size and force to the gaping tourists 😉
You may approve of this or not (I’m in two minds myself), but it certainly was exciting! Then we drove on to Litchfield NP. Our first stop: Gigantic termite mounds, a good spot to pose for a picture:
Afterwards, we only ever saw waterfalls in Litchfield NP, heaps of them, one after the other. They were really beautiful, too, but very crowded by tourists from Darwin on a public holiday.
We spent 2 days in Darwin. There isn’t much to see, but it was nice to enjoy the perks of being in a real city again, and leaving behind the strains of sightseeing and driving 😉 The sunset in Nightcliff was beautiful – we leisurely watched it in the company of a little beer.
The best for me, however, was the Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory – a highly informative museum presenting various sections on Aboriginal Australians, plants and wildlife, shipbuilding and cyclone Tracy. And then it was time for me to travel on my own again. After a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant I said good-bye and went off to the airport – to a plane bound for Cairns…

Indonesia

Sulawesi – Summary & Fotos

Juli 31, 2013 Just Booked A Trip 3 Kommentare

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:

Indonesia

Sula……what, when, where!? – Sulawesi!

Juli 4, 2013 Just Booked A Trip Hinterlasse einen Kommentar

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.
DSC08834 [50%]

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. DSC08910 [50%] 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:

DSC09976 [50%] 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!