Tag: Indonesia

There should be 8 monkeys. Can you spot them all?

Here come my most favorite images that have made it onto my blog so far. Come back from time to time as the list grows longer as I add new photos to the site. Enjoy!

Let me know which of my photos your favorites are! Head on over to my galleries, browse through my photos and leave a comment!

To all of you a Happy New Year!

In a couple days Al Gore will visit the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia, to talk about the need for a visionary treaty to deal with the effects of global warming. Add your voice to Al Gores petition, which he will take with him to Bali! At the time of writing 186,072 people had signed already.

Bandas underwater world is just unbelievably stunning. The coral is still intact and there are fish everywhere. Among other marine life you can see sharks and turtles, great barraccuda, dog tooth tuna, clown triggerfish, squid and napoleon wrasses while just snorkling. The walls, that start just a few meters off the beaches are so deep you can’t see the bottom, not even when you have 50 m visibility and freedive down to 25 m! Diving must be awesome there!! While I was there the one dive school on the islands was closed due to ramadan. No guides would go in the water, cause obviously you will get little amounts of water into your mouth and that counts as drinking! Just one more reason to go back to those charming islands…

Hey hey, just got back from Banda, well like 12 hours ago. On yet another Pelni boat. Anyways, it being the end of Ramadan I was clever enough to NOT book a room in advance. So, this morning (3 am) I have been walking around for ages looking for a room. Without success. Did find a 24hour internet place though, so I thought I could change a bit on my site layout. I had thought of all the changes before already, actually. What do you think? Any suggestions or bugs you found? I’d like to hear about that! And tomorrow, if I should find a bed somewhere, I’ll post something about Banda! Today, I’ve got enough of bloody computers…

If you’ve ever been on a Pelni boat in ekonomi class, then you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. The toilets and showers smell and are often flooded, the food doesn’t taste of much and doesn’t look very appetizing, you sleep with 50 other people in the same room for days and just trying to get on the boat, or off it for that matter, can turn out to be a near death experience.

So why do that to myself?

• It’s cheap!
  I paid just 140.000 Rp from Maumere to Makassar, a 36 hour trip, not counting the nine hours I had wait at the harbour for the bloody boat to turn up.
• It’s safe!
  The ships are proper german-built cruise liners, minus the luxury, but with a distinct Titanic feel to them. Nevertheless, you might hear occasionally of a capsized ferry, but I have never heard of a sunken Pelni ship.
• It’s an experience!
  You’re more than likely going to be the only foreigner, or ‘bule’, on a huge ship and you’ll be the talk of the day or however long the journey lasts. Want to feel like a celebrity? This is your chance without resorting to Big Brother and the likes.

And that’s just a few of the many reasons…

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Yesterday I was involved in a motorbike accident in Kupang, West Timor. Basically, a twelve year old kid drove straight into me, while I was indicating to go right. He was way too fast and he didn’t have a drivers license. Both of us had friends on the back, but luckily nobody got hurt apart from a few bruises and scratches. But this post isn’t actually about the accident. There was never any doubt in anybodys mind, that I was to blame whatsoever. Shit happens…

All of us went back to my guest house, where the owner of my bike tried to sort out the whole mess. He thought the damage to his bike will cost about 350.000 Rp (about 30 EUR or 35 USD) to repair. There was another foreigner present, who suggested that I pay for the damage, since I can afford it, whereas the parents of the kid will most likely have a hard time coming up with that kind of cash, it being almost a month’s salary. Now, I know that’s a lot of money for an indonesian family, but I think if I would have paid it would give everybody a totally wrong picture. He’s a tourist with lot’s of money, so never mind my own responsibility.

I didn’t like the way this guy was talking to me and personally, I think he’s a wanker, to put it bluntly. He got me thinking though, and I was wondering what other travelers out there think. Is it alright as a traveler to pay for damage you did not cause, but were involved in, so that a local family in a third world country does not have an additional burden on their wallet?

In Labhuanbajo quite a few people from the boat I came over with decided to pay a visit to Kelimutu and the three famous colored crater lakes. As Toby and Louise, an english couple, needed to be back in Labhuanbajo soon to catch a flight to Bali, we decided on hiring a car. This is quite an expensive way of travelling, as it cost us 500.000 Rp a day. But since there were four people sharing the car the cost dropped down considerably. The fourth person to join our car was Karsten, a german traveler.

On the first day we drove until Bajawa, probably one of the most pleasant places I have been to. Sadly enough, we still had to drive on the next day. This was quite an uneventful journey, until the other car travelling with us was involved in a little roadrage accident. So we had to spend almost two hours waiting for the police. We spent this by sitting by the roadside playing cards, much to the amazement of the local children. This was probably the most exciting thing that has happened in this little village for years.

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Recently I had the chance to go back to Komodo Island and see the dragons again. They are really unbelievable. It’s kind of like Jurassic Park in real life! While we only saw two dragons on Komodo we saw at least 15 the next day on Rinca!

Just a quick note to my readers that tomorrow I will take a boat to Flores. This will take four days. After this I will head further east. From my last visit there I remember that reliable internet is very scarce in the area, so I might not be able to post anything for up to six weeks. Well, that was four years ago or so, so it might have changed. Hope dies last…

Day 1 - Sembalun to the Base Camp

I met my fellow trekkers, a dutch couple named Robin and Ingrid, at 6 am, when we were all picked up in Senggigi. It was almost 8 am, when we finally arrived in Senaru, where we were introduced to Mursan, our guide, and Mordi, our porter for the trip. When we repacked our bags I noticed that Robin and Ingrid were equipped with the best gear money can buy. Well, it only made sense, considering that they had been to Mount Everest Base Camp and on the summit of Kilimanjaro. Nevertheless, I felt a bit inadequate with my Nike trainers and my flimsy raincoat. After a yummy breakfast of banana pancakes and tea we set off in a bemo to Sembulan, the starting point of our little adventure. There we first checked in at the Rinjani Ranger Center and then short before 10 am we started walking. The first hour was fairly easy, first through rice fields and then later through open countryside. When the forest started it got noticeably steeper and thus harder.

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I just checked into a room on Gili Trawangan. It looked nice. Then, short before I had a shower, I noticed something on the wall. It was a cockroach. Then I noticed another one. And another one. The shower only dribbles, the toilet does not work, the light makes the room look like a brothel. Outside you can hear cats sing their mating song and the door only closes when you actually lock it. I’m back in Asia. It’s good to be home!