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Kirstoire Maclean
Kirstoire Maclean

Kirstoire Maclean

har rejst i 5 lande Læs mere
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  • Kirstoire MacleanStoire’s winter escapeRejsende

    A brutal ending

    7. april 2019, Cambodja ⋅ 🌧 33 °C

    I fly home tomorrow from Phnom Penh and so far in Cambodia I have not seen anything of the brutal recent history that was the Khmer Genocide. It has been in my mind often and I find myself imagining what these people have seen and lived through. Ideally I wouldn't finish on this experience, but I can't leave the country ignorant to it and I think it is important to learn more. So today I visited the Killing Fields and S-21, a prison where innocent people were tortured.

    This is not a nice story, but I'm sharing it because it should not be forgotten. The horrors of history like this would be completely pointless if we didn't learn from them and help them shape our future.

    In 1975 Pol Pot began a derranged revolution in which he wanted to rid the country of capitalism and 'begin again from the year 0'. He believed the education and tecnological advancements were dangerous to his country and so he led an utterly brutal cleansing system which killed 3 million of the country's 8 million population. It began by emptying all the cities and forcing everyone to the countryside. Here, if people survived the arduous journey people were given the chance to 'live' if they were paupers-Pots favoured class, they continued life in arduous slavery working up to 21 hours a day in burning sun to create farms in traditional laboursome methods, as he banned all new equipment.

    Anyone with smooth hands, who wore glasses, had an education or who spoke a foreign language were the enemy. Their fate was much worse. S-21, now a museum, used to be a school and was turned into a prison where these people were taken for days, weeks, months, in some cases years of brutal torture, until they confessed to a crime. Once they 'confessed' they were taken to the killing fields to be killed. The prison was run by officers indoctrinated by Pot, many of whom were children. What they did to people here defies belief, the museum gave accounts from some of the few survivors and had paintings by a survivor who recreated scenes he had witnessed.

    Visiting this museum was always going to be a harrowing experience so I will try not to dwell on that. The tour is led by an audio guide, which allows them for personal reflection along the way. I suspect it would be too much to have locals be guides here, to relive their history so frequently. It was a very well curated exhibition sensitively showing graffic images of the bodies found when the Khmer were pushed out. The Khmer were very vigilant about documenting everything and some hasn't been destroyed, so there are photos of prisoners and of guards lining the rooms that were used for cells. Walking through the buildings that have some evidence of blood stains on, with these faces staring at you is a powerful experience. I felt I had to look every face in the eye to let them keep living.

    After 1.5 hours immersed in the shocking truth of Khmer we got back in the tuktuk to go to the killing Fields. We were a group of four who met that morning and had chatted the whole way there. Now the mood had significantly changed and we had periods of silence stirred by deep discussions about what we had seen. Trying to get our heads around it seemed an impossible quest, how could such a massive cruel act upon an entire country, by someone of its' own, ever make sense?

    We arrived at the killing Fields and braced ourselves for more. I won't go into further detail because I rattle on a lot and it won't be a pleasant read. But it didn't get any nicer. Nothing can prepare you for seeing the evidence that remains here of what happened in those fields.

    I found it hard upon leaving to know what to do next with my day. The four of us went for lunch and hung out in the pool at our hostel. We shared reflections on the morning and we returned to normal travel chat. But I don't think any of us will ever forget what we have seen.

    There aren't many old people in this country, I've noticed that since I arrived. Anyone that I do see that is over 40 makes me wonder how they live from day to day without fear and suffering. Because this is fresh, the country is still recovering and everyone has lost family members to the hideous crimes of the genocide.

    But there are people laughing, singing, kids playing and new businesses. You have to look in the corners to see it, beyond the poverty and child labour. Cambodia is a long way from being the country it deserves to be. But there is hope.    Læs mere

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  • Kirstoire MacleanStoire’s winter escapeRejsende

    Kep

    6. april 2019, Cambodja ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C

    Kep is a little fishing village on the sea, buzzing with activity, yet still feels relaxed and calm. Along the sea front Cambodians gather in big groups and sit on the pavements dining on feasts of seafood. The whole sea front is lined with food carts and women come by on motorbikes with bags hanging over the bars, of crabs and fruits from the market to sell. The beach has plenty of activity too; locals swimming and playing in inflatables. Behind the activity the while stretch is lined with rows of hammocks in the shade. A couple of km along the seafront is a market known as the crab market, but it sells fruits, tatty souvenirs and all kinds of fish. Here there is constant activity of women bringing in crab baskets that are full of crabs. It is what Kep is famous for and it certainly seems to have a lot of them!

    I spent two days in Keep, mainly exploring on foot. On the first day I took a long walk through the National Park that meets the village. It was a beautiful peaceful afternoon, I think I had more. encounters with monkeys than people (although one rather vicious monkey nearly bit my leg, but instead got my shoe). I walked 14km in jungle forest to see various viewpoints over the surrounding countryside.

    Next day I walked around the village to see the activity everywhere and then I took a tuktuk to a pepper farm-the other thing this region is famous for. The journey was very scenic, passing through the countryside. At the pepper farm I and a tour and got to taste all the different peppers. The premium range pepper was noticeably stronger than the others and I could understand why some top chefs will only cook with Kampot pepper. There were women sorting peppercorns by hand, getting paid 5USD a day to send back to their families.

    It's been a relaxing and refreshing couple of days, just what I need as my trip starts to come to an end.    Læs mere

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  • Kirstoire MacleanStoire’s winter escapeRejsende

    Kampot

    3. april 2019, Cambodja ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    I left the island to come to Kampot, a town on a river that is known for the beautiful countryside that surrounds.

    I took a tour of the local national park, which was very nice in parts, but was also very odd. The Chinese are building here (of course) and they are building houses, hotels and even casinos within what is a beautiful green and natural place. None of their buildings have anyone in or around, beacause who wants to place bets when exploring a national park?!

    It is such a shame that Cambodia needs the money, because I think the whole country is going to be ruined by the Chinese developers. Everywhere I have been has Chinese owned construction. If you look beyond the construction the country is very beautiful.

    In the evening the tour took us on a boat to do a river cruise. I met some locals and shared some beers with them. It was very interesting to learn about their experiences, one of them was a woman who felt repressed and controlled by her society. And one of them had moved to USA 35 years ago and had plenty to say about here and there. I had got a bit fed up on the tour-being with tourists and carted around from place to place, so I was really glad to meet these people and have some stimulating conversation. The boat journey was very beautiful, the river is clean and surrounded by lushious green jungle. We saw sunset and fireflies.

    I've decided to move from Kampot to Kep because my hostel is full of gap year kids who wan to get drunk and stoned. So I've booked myself a private room in a guesthouse in Keep, which is a small fisherman village famous for crabs. Now I can tell I have grown up!    Læs mere

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  • Kirstoire MacleanStoire’s winter escapeRejsende

    Koh Rong Sanloem

    31. marts 2019, Cambodja ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    When Rohit left I took a ferry to the neighboring island, Koh Rong Sanloem. It is smaller and quieter. I treated myself to my own bungalow in the bush, where it was peaceful. I spent a couple of days relaxing and taking long walks to discover new beautiful beaches. The beaches are really stunning and very quiet, I felt like I had discovered one of Asia's secret paradise's.

    I decided not to go diving as it was expensive and the snorkeling was terrible, hardly any coral and a few fish. Better to leave on the high is Komodo than have a boring dive here.

    I finally got a good night sleep, and slept for 11 hours. Rohit had been waking me up early, so I was glad to be alone again!

    I met some people on the beach at dinner and ended up having an accidental huge night at a beach bar. It was good fun, but slightly regrettable the next morning as I had a journey to make! But I have lived to tell the tale.    Læs mere

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  • Kirstoire MacleanStoire’s winter escapeRejsende

    Ko Rong Island

    31. marts 2019, Cambodja ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    We travelled overnight on a bus to Sihonoukeville, the coastal town of Cambodia. There used to be a beautiful coastline, but it has all been bought by the Chinese and so has become a concrete construction zone. Therefore we bypassed the mainland beaches and came straight to as island ,that has also been bought by Chinese but has not been developed on so aggressively. In fact most of the businesses here are owned and ran by Europeans, so it doesn't feel very Cambodian.

    It is a very beautiful island with soft squeaky white sand and turquoise clear water. Some beaches are littered with waste dragged in the sea. I started cleaning the sea yesterday only to arrive at a beach that you could not see the sand because of all the palstic waste on it. Made my efforts seam quite pointless!

    It is very much a backpacker haven and is geared around partying. Not really what I am after, but the cheapest option. We didn't join the drinking games or pub crawl, but still managed to casually drink enough to end up dancing on the beach on the first night.

    Then yesterday we took a boat tour around the island, stopping at places for snorkelling, a village to see local life and some of the beautiful beaches on the island. It was a great day out packed with information. Rohit had never snorkelled before, so I taught him and he gradually became more confident and pretty delighted when he managed to do it in the dark and see the bioluminescent plankton. It was a great day,but very exhausting. After 11 hours on a boat we were pretty wiped out by the tips we got back.

    Rohit has left this morning and now I am taking a boat to the neighbouring island, that is meant to be more quiet and peaceful. Hopefully there will be less gap year kids and a chance for me to do some yoga and go diving.    Læs mere

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  • Kirstoire MacleanStoire’s winter escapeRejsende

    Floating village

    29. marts 2019, Cambodja ⋅ ⛅ 34 °C

    Yesterday we took a tour of Kampong Phluk, a floating village on a river near Siem Reap. However because it is dry season the village is mostly not floating, instead is dry land with buildings on incredibly high stilts. The wet season starts in June and then the water from the river rises so high the whole area becomes sunk in about 2m of water.

    We had a tour from a guy who grew up there, but now lives in the city. It used to be a place thriving with fish and that is what made people live there, but now it is overpopulated and they have eaten all the fish, so it is far less prosperous. And I find myself wondering why they would still live somewhere so difficult.

    It was a smelly place, they were drying tiny shrimps in the sun. The market was a bike that rides around with fruit and veg hanging off it everywhere, in the wet season it becomes a boat instead.

    We were taken on a small boat to a floating restaurant and watched sunset there.

    It was an interesting day, but porbably would be more charming in the wet season when the village is afloat!    Læs mere

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  • Kirstoire MacleanStoire’s winter escapeRejsende

    Siem Reap and Angkor Wat

    29. marts 2019, Cambodja ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    After a long journey of three flights to Cambodia I arrived in Siem Reap at about midday and was very tired, but excited to be with Rohit. Having met him in a market in Kolkata it was quite surreal to be on holiday with him. We stayed in a hostel with a swimming pool, because it is stupidly hot in Cambodia at the moment. And on our first day we took a walk around the city and chilled out in the pool.

    Siem Reap is a very flat city with no high buildings and it is less busy that other Asian cities, so it was quite pleasant to be in. However it is incredibly touristy and has a street named 'pub street' which has 24 hour pubs selling beer at 50c., Which of course attracts party seekers and the gap year kids. But we didn't stay up late enough to get bothered by this! I was completely exhausted after the journey and a week of no sleep prior to it.

    We woke at 4.15am the next day to go to Angkor Wat to see sunrise behind it. I was expecting it to be busier, but as the temple is huge there is a large area for us to spread out, so it was possible to get a view of sunrise without people in the way. It was fairly nice sunrise, but not the best. At 6am they opened the temple and we began temple touring....the first of many.

    Angkor Way is the largest religious building in the world and dates back to 11th century. It took us 3 hours to walk around it, so that gives some idea of the scale of it. There are many many steps, taking us to high floors of the temple. It was suffered a lot of weather damage over the years, but internally the engravings on the stone are still preserved and tell stories of the history of the era. We didn't have a guide, but I have since bought a book so I can learn more about this.

    The area around Angkor Wat was the centre of power in Cambodia from 6th century until 15th and every new king seemed to build at least one new temple. So the area is littered with ancient buildings. Some of the temples have been partly destroyed by trees that have grown within them, the roots wrapped around the structure. It is an impressive sight to see.

    We visited about 7 temples and spent 13 hours on the tour. We had hired 'the cowboy' tuktuk driver for the day, he had a pimped up tuktuk that played music and had a coolbox with beers and water. He was a fascinating person to meet, having been an orphan living on the streets as a child he then became a monk at 19 to get an education, worked in the police and security and now loves his job as a tourist guide.

    It was a long ,very interesting day. The temples are really beautiful and so impressively made. They have no cement holding the stones together and the stones are all different shapes and sizes, yet form perfect symmetrical walls. Many of the ceilings have collapsed and there are piles of the fallen stones that look like an earthquake has occurred. When a ceiling remains it is remarkable to see because the stones are balanced on top of each other and wedged in, with no fixative. It's amazing that they could ever be built, let alone remain standing for so long.

    That evening we took a well deserved massage, having walked 19.7km- much of which was steps.    Læs mere

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  • Kirstoire MacleanStoire’s winter escapeRejsende

    More diving photos

    23. marts 2019, Indonesien ⋅ 🌧 30 °C

    Unfortunately the most incredible views we saw underwater were not possible to get photos of, because our energy and concentration was being used on managing the currents. But my eyes won't forget!

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  • Kirstoire MacleanStoire’s winter escapeRejsende

    Komodo Live aboard dive trip

    23. marts 2019, Indonesien ⋅ 🌧 29 °C

    I'm sorry I can't make this brief. This is for me as much as anyone else, I want to remember everything. But just read the first paragraph if you like!

    The four days I have been on this boat have probably been the highlight of this entire trip so far. And of my life (but I wonder how many times I have said that?!). Komodo National Park is beautiful, above and below water. But below water it is mind blowing, I feel like I have taken diving to the next level and challenged myself, learnt a lot and seen things I will never forget and forever cherish. I have found my new happy place and at the moment when I close my eyes I see it. It is actually making sleep quite hard! I just don't know how to describe it to you to do it justice, but the effect it has on my subconscience should give some indication to how phenomenal the underwater world is. I am struggling to read and to sleep because I have been so stimulated by beauty and adrenaline.

    I will try to explain the experience chronologically and not get carried away in my current state of elation!

    Komodo National Park is a large group of islands off the east part of Indonesia. There are only four small villages within the park and the entire area is protected. So you just see nature, with no buildings. Being on a live aboard boat we are able to access places other boats cannot get to, so a lot of the time it is just us surrounded by beautiful green sculptured islands, with surreal rock formations and a diverse forms of landscape. As it is the end of wet season the land is bright green, but soon it will dry out and be yellow.

    We are on an Indonesian wooden built catermeran that sleeps up to 10 guests, but we are a group of 7. The other guests are very interesting, an Italian couple who live in Gabon working in gorilla conservation, an American mother and daughter who both travel and do a lot of extreme sports, Canadian guy who has retired and sold his house so lives overseas throughout the winter and myself and Rebecca-the friend I made in Bali in January. We all get along very well and enjoy the time between dives chatting about all sorts of topics.

    The boat has a large crew who are all Indonesian, consisting of captain, cruise director/dive instructor, 2 dive guides, 2 dingy boat drivers, 2 mechanics/engineers, 2 chefs and a table service man. They sleep on deck and in a shared cabin. The boat has 4 levels-lower deck has bedrooms, first deck has diving platform with all our dive gear, kitchen and dining, more bedrooms and bathrooms, second floor has captains office, another bedroom and seating area and the top deck is a lounging/sun deck. The staff are incredible, they feed us ridiculous amounts of delicious food, wait on us at mealtimes and give full assistance with all our dive gear so we carry heavy equipment as little as possible and don't have to set up any of our own gear.

    The dive guides have astonished me with skill, strength and understanding-to be a guide here you need to know the sites extremely well and be able to manage stressful and difficult scenarios on almost every dive. They give detailed breifings of our dives and pay attention to our individual diving experience and skills. Komodo is renowned for having very strong currents and complex diving, so it needs to be managed especially safely. We are in small groups of 2-3 with a guide, who is our guide for the entire trip. Myself and Becky have a tiny little Indonesian called Hans and I am in awe of him. He is so strong for someone so tiny, he can carry both of us against a current in order to get us somewhere safe to hang out and watch the underwater world go by. After I had a scary experience in the Philippines I told him I was scared of drift dives, where you ride a current and 'fly' through the water. He has offered alternative entrances to some dive sites, but told me that he knows from my skills that I can manage the more complex journey. I trust him entirely and have taken the latter option and now I have done about 8 dives with strong currents, complex management and involved drift diving for all or part of the dive. And now I am not scared and I bloody love it.

    So there are two elements of diving here to describe; the scenery and the technical adrenaline pumping journeys involved within the dives.

    We started with two dives that were 'simple' in terms of Komodo NP, so that our guides could see how we are under water and what your air consumption is. This is important so that they know for later dives how to time the routes and keep us with enough air to ride the currents to get to a safe exit point of the site. (For example they use reef hooks to keep us in place when there is an extremely strong current and we could stay there for 5-10 minutes if we used air quickly or 15-20 minutes if we consumed less air.) These two dives were indescribably beautiful, they were at islands that were surrounded by neverending coral forest. The islands provided some shelter from the currents that wrap around the land, so we would enter the sites at around 25m and then zigzag up towards the top nice and slowly, whilst spoiling our eyes with a rich view of wonderful colours and countless fish and creatures. As we would reach the edge of the island we would feel a current and go back in the other direction. Even this was harder than most dives I have ever done and it was just the beginning! As soon as we went down I saw a sea snake and it was just the smallest welcome to what was about to be the biggest ever treat to my eyes. I can't even begin to tell you what I have seen in each dive, it would take way too long!

    After these dives we went to Rinca Island to do a small hike and see the Komodo dragons. I have always wanted to see the dragons, but since becoming a diver this part of the NP I had almost forgotten about! However they did not disappoint and have still been a highlight-we saw countless dragons. Most of them were just lounging in the shade, but some of the smaller ones (which need to eat more often) were on the prowl. It was everything I ever imagined, like watching a dinosaur in the desert hunt out prey warning their peers about the incoming predator. We were being guided by two rangers who had big forked sticks to protect us, should anything kick off. The rangers carefully managed our placement with the dragons and helped us take photos safely. The hike we did took us up a big hill that gave a great view of the bay and surrounding islands.

    We did a night dive that night, which are always in calm safe conditions and make for a very relaxing experience....then the next day the adrenaline started pumping!

    There is a reason why we do dives in challenging currents; the currents pull in plankton for fish to feast on and these fish attract large predators, so there is a good chance of seeing sharks, tuna, barracuda, Napoleon gropers and other large pelagic fish- all referenced as 'big fish. Then once within the calmer part of a dive, when out of the strong current there is usually a massive and wealthy coral garden which thrives in life and has many more fish and also lots of small and unusual things living within them-collectively referenced as 'micro'.

    We did 3 day dives a one night dive each day. Every dive we have done has been completely unique and has a story of its own, but to make it brief I will tell you how we managed the currents in order to see as much as we could. Usually we would enter the current at the beginning of a dive. The simplest would then be a drift dive, where we follow one straight route and then swim across the current into a sheltered bay at the end. Within this type of dive and for the more complex our dive guide would sometimes find a rock (or somewhere within the coral that would not damage it) that he could hook onto with a reef hook. A reef hook is a metal hook with 1-2 lines attached to it, with hooks on the end. Hans' hook had two lines so once he attached it Becka and I would each hang onto one of the hooks. Then we could relax and stay in once place and enjoy the view. Hans would sometimes hold the line if it was a super strong current, otherwise he would hand onto some rock with his fingers and his immense strength. Sometimes when we were hanging out like this the current would be so strong it would be pulling at our masks and regulators so we would have to hold them. It was an intense experience!

    Some of the dives involved more complex routes where we would go through small channels or 'cauldron' formations that suddenly create a 'shotgun' effect, where the current is suddenly much stronger and you get fired very quickly. In these instances we would always have to be very close to Hans so that he could get the hook in place and we would quickly hold on. If we missed the opportunity we would have just kept getting swept with the current and would have swam across the current into the calmer part of the dive. But we always managed to stay close enough and manouver ourselves so that we could use the reef hook he set up for us. These dives were exhilarating and physically tiresome. I always thought diving was the laziest sport, but now I have seen the more active way to do it!

    We did a total of 13 dives over 4 days and they were all the best dive I have ever done-everytime I came up to surface I was rushing with excitement and saying 'that is my best ever dive, favourite so far'! I won't list everything that we saw, but my highlight was definitely the manta rays as I have never seen them before and they are the most elegant creature. They are huge winged flat fish that feed on plankton in currents and hang out near coral bombies so that the smaller fish can clean them. We spent one drift dive in a current passing by bombie cleaning stations and we saw 14 of them. They move so gracefully with a gentle flap of their wings, swinging their jaws slowly to collect plankton. When you are hanging onto a rock and feel the strength of a current that can pull you at speed for a great distance it is so impressive this creature gracefully glide through. At the cleaning stations they glide around in circles whilst the smaller fish clean them, it looks like a dance and is mesmerising. This is what I see when I close my eyes at the moment and I hope it never stops!

    We were lucky enough to see these beautiful creatures in four dives and also we watched them from the boat gliding around in the shallows. Other big fish of particular excitement that we saw were many sharks (white tip, black tip and nurse sharks), huge bumphead parrot fish, tuna, Napoleon groper, big schools of barracuda and and jacks. We also saw many turtles and lots of micro creatures. On night dives we saw octopus, feeding lionfish, bizarre looking crabs and crustaceans.

    The coral was so colourful and diverse it was just so beautiful. I haven't seen anything so beautiful since being in PNG and I couldn't dive then, so this has finally made up for that.

    The whole experience has been so incredible I feel completely content and could come home tomorrow. I don't think my trip can get better than that and I've made my memories to focus on when I am trying to relax at home.

    ......but of course I still have two weeks to go. So this evening I fly to Cambodia to meet a friend I made in India.    Læs mere

  • Kirstoire MacleanStoire’s winter escapeRejsende

    Gili to Komodo

    20. marts 2019, Indonesien ⋅ 🌧 28 °C

    Yesterday I left Gili air early in the morning. I had asked many salesmen if it was possible for me to leave in the morning and get to the airport in time for my 2pm flight, as in would it 100% be possible. To which they told me yes, the journey takes 2.5 hours and the boat goes at 8.30am. So I chose to stay the extra night on Gili Air and I enjoyed a night out with an old Australian hippy I had met diving. Then I got up early and went to the ferry port.....8.30 came and went and the guy started making announcements in Indonesian. Then I noticed a sign that says the boat goes only once 40 passengers are ready, so obviously all the locals strole along whenever it suits them as they know the boat won't have left on time.....so I just patiently thinking I had plenty of time, even if the boat was late. Eventually at 9.30 the boat has enough passengers and we took the 15 minute journey to Lombok mainland. From there I had been told to walk to the office to get the bus to the airport, but a guy on a bike insisted on taking me there. When I arrived the guy in the office was annoyed at me for being late and said the bus had left already. I told him it was beyond my control and explained all the conversations I had had with ticketsalesmen who told me I would definitely have enough time for the journey. He was stressing because the journey from there to airport was apparently 2.5 hours. In the end he took me on his bike to meet a minibus and the minibus dropped me at the airport. I got there in plenty of time and never really felt any stress myself from the experience, but learnt not to take salesmen's word in future! Anyway I arrived in Komodo on time and was glad for those people that helped me get here. Of course they tried to cheat me for extra money, but I told them no chance. And that was that.

    I have come to Komodo to do a live aboard dive trip with one of the girls I met in Bali back in January. She flies in from Australia tomorrow morning, having been back home for work.

    I have wanted to come to Komodo for a long time, to see the dragon. But now I am a diver it is even more appealing. Known to be one the best places in Indonesia for diving, with strong currents that bring in big sharks and manta rays for feeding, amongst other things. I expect some challenging dives but brilliant visibility and amazing things to see. I have chosen a reputable company who take divers in very small groups so that current dives can be safe, and take divers to different entrance points for dives depending on their experience. I have also managed to wangle a 250euro discount.

    The boat sleeps 10 guests. We will do up to 13 dives over 4 days. We also visit an island to trek where many Komodo dragons are and another island for a sunset trek. The food on the boat looks incredible. It is going to be another indulgent experience.

    I probably won't be able to use internet until off the boat on 24th, so don't worry if I haven't updated this.    Læs mere

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  • Kirstoire MacleanStoire’s winter escapeRejsende

    Gilli Air Perfection

    17. marts 2019, Indonesien ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    I am living the most perfect existence on this island. The days starts early for diving and I take a nice walk on the quiet streets (that have no vehicles other than the occasional bike or horse drawn carriage) to my dive shop, which is on the east of the island and has a great view of Lombok and Rinjani Volcano.

    Then I go diving, for the past two days I have done two dives in the morning. The coral isn't amazing, a lot of it has died unfortunately, but still there is a lot to see and the dive sites are very easy so it is incredibly peaceful. Yesterday in the first dive I saw three white tip shark, one juvenile chilling out under a coral bomb and a couple of turtles and a beautiful scorpian fish-these are fish that have incredible camouflage into their surroundings and are always a delight to see because you feel like you have caught then out. This dive was on a purposefully sank boat that is becoming a living reef.

    The next dive had some purposefully sank bikes that are becoming living reefs and we saw some cuttlefish-these are beautiful to see as they charge electricity through themselves somehow so that they light up.

    Then today we have seen loads of turtles, that let us get so close to them you can watch fish clean their shells, more scorpion fish and a frogfish. Frogfish are incredibly wierd looking and blend so well with their surroundings I have no idea how anyone ever spots them. We saw some school of great travelli and some huge tuna like fish, of the Benali family. There are always many other fish around, but I just mention the ones that were a particular treat to see. There are always trigger fish, angel fish, anemone fish (Nemo), surgeon fish, sweetlips, grouse-we float around surrounded by the world's biggest aquarium!

    After diving I take a walk and find a quiet spot on the beach (which isn't hard) and read my book for a couple of hours. It's still wet season, so the sky isn't always clear. But it is warm and very pleasant to lie in, without ever feeling like the heat might suffocate me. Then I do some yoga in my very well air conditioned room, before taking a walk to a beach on the west of the island for a sunset beer. Unfortunately the clouds prevent the most beautiful sunset, but it is relaxing all the same. I take a walk and find dinner and then go to bed....to do it all again next day. I'm not sure life gets better than this.

    I have written this in a restaurant in the dark because we had a powercut. It happens, so I have learnt. And it just makes you live even more simply than this quiet island already demands. Candlelit dinner, tasting the flavours without being entirely sure what is on the plate. And no internet, the final cut off to the outside world. Bliss. (Obviously I am posting once the power returned, WiFi is necessary for some things!)    Læs mere

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  • Kirstoire MacleanStoire’s winter escapeRejsende

    Nusa Penida

    15. marts 2019, Indonesien ⋅ 🌫 30 °C

    After leaving the retreat I took a taxi to Sanur, which is a town on the seafront near to the airport, but not as near as the awful place Kuta-which is the part of Bali most heavily populated with drunk Aussies and trashy bars and clubs. Sanur is still very touristy, but having spent just an evening in both places it is definitely my preferred location. There is a long seafront of almost 10km and the whole thing is lined with restaurants, bars, hotels and stalls. I spent the evening walking along it and I treated myself to a beer on the beach at sunset. Then I had some delicious local food in the night market. My favourite dish here is gado gado-a salad of green beans, bean sprouts, tofu, Tempe and a spicy peanut sauce.

    I stayed at Sanur so I could take the boat to Nusa Penida in the morning, an island I was told to go to by Marla to visit her friend in her dive shop. It is quite a big Island within eyesite of Bali. I just took a flying visit through as my next destination is somewhere I want to relax for a few days. The main reason for me to come here was because supposedly you can dive with manta rays, every single day they are at a site where they clean themselves on the coral. I've seen a lot of sealife, but have never seen manta rays and so it was something I was quite excited about.

    We left for the dive in the morning, the site was on the southern part of the island and the journey took about 40minutes. The view of the island was impressive,-jurassic looking with steep cliffs and trees miraculously growing out of rock. The waves were crashing at some places and the resulting erosion caused some serious carvings and impressive rock sculptures. The waves on the sea were fairly big as well and the boat was rocking a lot. When we got to manta point, which is a large rock off the southern point of the island, we entered the water with backrolls into the sea. We went down and had a disappointing dive. The visibility was very poor, the waves were stirring up the sand and it meant in some places we couldn't see more than 2meters away. The swell of the waves was also quite strong, so we had less control on our movement which restricted where we could go. The main cleaning station was in the shallows and my guide was not comfortable to go there in these conditions. We spent 50minutes down at about 16-18ma, hoping the mantas would come and surprise us at any moment. Instead we saw lots of blue spotted stingrays, many of which were mating, and a school of catfish. But it was nothing as exciting as what I hoped. When we came up everyone was saying how unlucky we were because in recent days the visibility had been great. A few people saw about 5 manta rays at the cleaning station, but they said it was a poor sighting because the visibility was so bad. I was disappointed, but accepted this was the beauty of nature-it is unpredictable, sometimes it brings surprises that are like a gift and sometimes it doesn't. The excitement of it is that whatever happens it is real nature, not a man made or manipulated environment. So on this occasion I took the bad, for I have and my fair share of good dives recently!

    After lunch we stopped at a bay on the way back to the dive shop to dive a site called crystal bay. This was a completely different experience. The visibility was brilliant-we could see 20-30m and there were thousands of fish everywhere. There was a lot of coral, but some of it had been damaged by a big storm last year. We could see where it had been knocked down by falling rocks, causing it to break. We saw many types of fish and coral, some of which I had not seen before. Some cornetfish (very long, thin silver fish with pointed noses and big eyes) were glowing with electricity, lighting up in a shiny blue. It just amazes me what happens down there! Then the finale to complete the dive was a sighting of a common seahorse. I am always amazed when someone finds something like this because they blend in with their environment and hardly move. The swell was moving it with the wave movements and it was clinging with its tail to a piece of coral. The second dive made up for the first dive and concluded the day with positivity.

    I spend the rest of the day in the pool at the dive shop, which was in front of the beach and had a view of Bali. It was a fine location, I could see why Lauren had opened a shop here!

    Now I am waiting for the boat which will take me to Gilli Air. There are three Gilli islands and I am going to the quiet one that has no motor vehicles and is walkable. One of the islands is known as party Isla d and the other is a resort island. I'm going to Gilli air for more diving and to do some yoga. I will send 3-4 nights there.    Læs mere

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    Seeing the Shaman

    13. marts 2019, Indonesien ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C

    Whilst at the yoga retreat the other guests requested to visit the Shaman, which is not something I really wanted to do, but as it was cheap and new experience I thought 'why not?'. I had heard from another traveler I read a bizarre but enlightening experience.

    A Shaman is a man that Balinese people believe is in touch with the spiritual world, he can communicate with spirits and read people's auras. To become a Shaman you visit a Shaman and they help it happen, but I haven't been able to get any clear answer as to how or why this happens really. With his gift he helps people in their life with physical, health and practical support. In Bali 50% of people will chose to visit a Shaman instead of a doctor, but this is perhaps because he is cheaper and they have to pay for all healthcare services.

    I entered the experience with an open mind, but am perfectly happy with my life and have nothing I need him to cure or give me guidance with. So perhaps this was part of the problem.

    For the experience we had to wear local clothing, which was a long skirt and lace top and a scarf around our waist. Then we were taken to the Shamans property. It was a typical Balinese building, within nice gardens and with many bird cages all around. They collect birds and on Sundays they have competitions to see whose bird makes the best song. The Shaman had some lovely birds, including a little owl. I couldn't help but pity them, a creature with the ultimate freedom-the gift of flight, restricted to a small cage for its' whole life.

    We sat for a long time on the floor outside the Shamans room whilst he pottered around the property blessing various things. Then eventually we were blessed by his assistant, which involved having water put on our hands, in our hair and we were to to drink it three times from our hands. The lady was putting it onto us with a lotus flower. I pretended to drink it as it felt like asking for gut trouble otherwise! Finally we were blessed with water on our foreheads and we had to put rice onto it. We then had to meditate whilst holding onto incense in front of our chest. It wasn't a nice experience because the incense was burning right into our noses and the ash dropping on our legs. But it meant we were blessed!

    After the blessing we entered the Shamans room individually and a man from our retreat sat in with us to translate. The room was small, had incense in it and lots of random statues, one of which was a scary looking pig. The Shaman sat on the floor and we sat in front of him. The Shaman blessed us and gave us a bracelet for our right hand and instructed us to wipe our bottom with our left hand because now our right hand was holy and in touch with the gods. He then put his thumb against ours and muttered some stuff, held the elbow tightly whilst still muttering and then did the same at our shoulder and head. From this he had sensed our aura. He told me that I still had good energy. Given how sceptical I am and how hungry I was after waiting so long for him I wouldn't have been surprised if my energy was bad to him! (he told Brooke she had bad energy, so he wasn't just being nice to us all.) Then I was to ask his a question. Thankfully as I was last I had been prepared for this, had I gone first I would have had no idea what to say because I have nothing I expect him to help me with and nothing in my life that needs to change. However with a stretch of imagination I told him I would like a partner to share my life with. He then did more of the holding arm and muttering stuff and then he replied telling me that I should use my god's as my support and guidance and speak with them. I told him I don't believe in any god's! So then he told me that in Balinese culture they believe everyone has four brothers on the earth who they can rely on and speak with and that I should use my brother's for guidance and support. So I said 'right, so I'm meant to live a lonely life but speak to my brothers more?!', 'yes' was my reply. I asked if he meant my actual brothers, because it was not really very clear from his lar-dee-dah description of brothers and guidance, and he said yes. He told me to ask my brother for guidance and advice and I told him my brother wants different things for my life than what I do, to which he had no reply. Then he asked what other questions I had and I told him I was perfectly happy with my life and had nothing else to ask him....so I left his room thinking what a waste of time it was. I am sure he probably now felt I had bad energy, as I did not believe in the same things as him!

    After all our meetings with him we had a final blessing and then he came outside of his room. We were told that he loses his power once he outside of the rooms and so now he is a normal person, and did we want a photo with him?! I couldn't help thinking what a scam the whole thing was, and how they wanted to promote it with photos of him being taken. The other women were far less sinical so I kept my views to myself and went along with it.

    Kathy was told she had good energy and she was given advice about her career and her personal life and Brooke was told she has bad energy and then received advice about many parts of her life. I think my encounter was the shortest and by the sounds of it I got the most wishy washy reply, but perhaps this is because I didn't really expect anything of him and even though there some truth that I would like a partner I certainly don't expect that meeting an old man in Bali is going to make this happen! So maybe he really can read people's auras and knew not to waste his time on me, as a non believer.....or maybe it was just an imaginative and bizarre performance that had no real insight into my future, but was weird and wonderful enough to make someone believe. I'll let you decide.

    I don't doubt that for some people the Shaman can help them in their life, but I do doubt I need him to help mine. As a positive and secure person I have all I need. Personally I think people with less confidence and who have experienced a hard time in life they are looking for something to give them positivity. The Shaman could be this for them and once they believe they have been helped they then make more confident choices in life, which coincidentally helps to solve the problems they initially had. So whether he is in touch with another spiritual world or not, his contribution to those who believe is worthwhile and harmlessly makes a difference.

    I am glad to have the experience, it is fascinating to see how different our beliefs can be when we all live on the same planet and have the same basic needs. But as you can probably tell my life hasn't been changed and I certainly haven't given up hope in meeting someone, just because an old man in Bali told me it won't happen!    Læs mere

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    My birthday reatreat

    11. marts 2019, Indonesien ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    I am currently at a yoga retreat in a remote part of Bali, surrounded by beautiful rice fields and palm trees. It is not quite what I expected as I thought I was staying in a local persons home. In fact I have my own room at the yoga centre, so it's a bit nicer than I expected! There are two other women here at the moment, a 51 year old Aussie and a 34 year American girl. Other people from local resorts come into our yoga classes as well.

    I did not sleep on the train to get here overnight so I arrived exhausted and took an early night soon after dinner, but had time for a massage beforehand! There is not a lot to do in the evening anyway.

    Next morning I woke up and realised it is my birthday! Obviously I knew it was coming, but when not with friends or family it could easily just pass by without being noticed. However I had told everyone here so I did receive some greetings. We had a yoga class and then went to a lovely waterfall and relaxed there for the morning. After lunch and the afternoon yoga class we were 'Trash Heroes', which is rubbish pickers. I thought it was quite funny I was basically doing community service on my birthday, but it was wholesome and felt good to be helping the locals look after their environment....just a shame they litter the place in the first place! The walk ended at a shop where we could buy beer, so the birthday 'celebrations' began. We had a few more beers with dinner and before dinner the staff blessed me for my birthday. I had to wear local clothes and they used a lotus flower dipped in water to put water on me and then bless me by sticking rice to the water. Meanwhile they were wishing good things for me . They presented me with a basket of blessings, including a boiled egg, some cooked rice, bananas, fruits and many different local made sweets. And they made a local drink which was coconut water with sugar, salt and chilli-surprisinglt good. They told me to eat it all, but considering I was about to have dinner I told them I couldn't. It was nice to see their way of doing things and to have had something special done for me.

    One of the men who works here has a 4 year old son, his mother passed away 3 years ago and he has no grandparents. The little boy, Billy is craving love and tries to cuddle us all. His dad is great with him, but he obviously just wants a Mum. Last night I started playing with him and now he has taken a liking to me and sits on my knee and cuddles me all the time, it is very cute, but a little heartbreaking. Last night he fell asleep in my arms as I sang him a lullaby and then when his dad took him to bed he cried hysterically. I had to tell myself all kids cry when they get woken to go to bed.....shortly later when I went to the shop for more beer with his dad he was awake again and wanted to come with me, by my side the whole time. I have asked his dad if it is ok and he says it is fine. I suppose he is used to propel coming and going all the time.

    The yoga here is a different style to my usual practice, it is more spiritual and involves some chanting to hindu gods. It is a very calming experience and fascinating to learn the traditional philosophy of it. I cannot say I believe in what it is supposed to do, but it certainly helps to get into a meditative state. The physical part of the classes involves a slightly different variation of the main series of poses that is used in all yoga- sun salutations, and we are also doing moon salutations. As well as that we have been holding poses, some of which are new to me. Although the classes are slower paced than I am used to I can feel in all of my muscles that I have been working hard, especially in my arms. It is a good feeling, especially after having such a lazy time recently. This place is just what I need!    Læs mere

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    The highs and the lows of Yogyakarta

    8. marts 2019, Indonesien ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

    On Tuesday morning I continued travelling solo and boarded a train to Yogyakarta ,a city 8 hours to the east of Jakarta that was recommended to me because of it's temples. I knew nothing else to expect and hoped for it to be less busy, dirty and loud than Jakarta. The journey was quite scenic and at time very beautiful, passing rice fields and volcanoes. It rained for pretty much the entire time, as it started during the bug storm in Jakarta it seemed perhaps my train was traveling with the storm! When I finally arrived the heavens truly opened and the streets were flooding-it doesn't take long when the water falls in sheets like this. My taxi journey increased in price in seconds and in the short walk to get to the car I was soaked right through. (I have a local simcard so that I can use apps to book transport like a local, therefore getting fair prices without negotiation.)

    The continued into the night but I had eaten nothing that resembled food all day-the train station and train having poor provisions, so I made a dash out to dinner at a restaurant recommended by my host because it and vegetarian food and vegetables. However it also had lots of meat and my difficulty was defining which option on the menu was meat and which was vegetarian. I spent a long while googling the menu options to make my choice! Without Marla for translation local food proved quite difficult. But I managed it and ended up with a delicious dish of tofu in spicy peanut sauce, served with solid rice cubes and cabbage and a side dish of garlic chilli spinach.

    The next day I went on a wander to explore the city, my hostel being in walking distance of all the main attractions. There is an old area with small pedestrian streets lined with art galleries and shops. Many of the walls have street art on in batik style-the location art and textile fashion. It was a great place to get lost and found myself beginning to enjoy the city. I visited the water temple, which is a beautiful building that an ancient king built for bathing and leisure. Then I continued to walk through backstreets to find my way to the bus stop. The walk was really enjoyable, many of the streets are lined with plants that they have grown out of all sorts of random containers-a good example of recycling. And stalls selling tempting food dotted along the way, but I was saving myself for hopes of a sit-down lunch to break up my walking.

    I then took a bus to one of the famous temples-Perambanan, the largest Hindu temple in the world. It is 17km out of the city and can be accessed on public bus. The journey there took me 45 minutes and I arrived at 1.50pm, after a short walk to the temple I arrived at around 1.58pm, paid for my entrance, walked through the gates and at around 2.02pm thunder broke and the heavens opened. When I say heavens opened it was more like all the world's oceans had been picked up and dropped upon the temple and were going to continue falling until they were back in the ocean.....it was the wettest storm I have ever experienced. And I was supposed to be viewing an outdoor temple! People were rushing out as I rushed in to find some place of vague shelter, but as it was so clear that the skies weren't going to clear any time soon I figured I was going to get soaked at some point, so I may as well just get wet and see what I can. The temple consisted of many buildings with shrines to various god's in. I visited 2 of them whilst the place was flooding....so I soon surrendered and waded through the water to find my way back. I eventually got back to the bustop dripping wet. No waterproof would be capable of defending skin from that water, I was completely saturated. Then I got on the bus back to town, disappointed at having spent money and time on something I head heard wonderful things about but could not see.....it went downhill from there. The bus was heavily air conditioned, I was already cold and now I was freezing. My hands and feet turned white and were painful with the chill and as I had not yet had lunch I was getting angry. The journey took twice as long to get back, I eventually made it back 2 hours later at 5pm. It was the lowlight of my trip so far, I was far from happy. Some local people tried to chat to me on the bus and a times I did my best to be friendly, at others I just scowled. A journey best forgotten!

    The rain was relentless and when I got off the bus I decided I should just carry on in it, I was booked into a yoga class 3km away but I didn't see the point in drying off to get there because there was no way to stay dry in this weather. So I walked to the yoga class and by the time I was there I could feel my fingers and toes again, the motion had warmed them up. I had some dry clothes tied in a plastic bag within my backpack so I could do the class in something dry at least. The class ended at 8pm and the rain was still going and I needed dinner because I had only snacked all day. So I got a taxi to the place near my hostel, but had to wear my wet clothes because my yoga clothes would not respect Muslim culture. After another successful delicious vegetarian meal I walked back to my hostel. As I entered the owners told me I looked very sad and tired, so I grumbled about my day, took a shower and went to bed! This was 9pm, so for 7 hours now I had been soaking wet.

    I had arranged to go to the other famous temple for sunrise, but when I woke at 3.45am it was still raining! So I told the guy who was taking me we should go back to bed and go later in the day. It was a good decision because when I woke a few hours later the rain had finally stopped and we took the 1.5hour journey on his scooter in dry conditions. The temple is Borobudur, the largest Buddhist temple. It was a nice journey there, last rice fields and volcanoes. The temple was worth the journey and finally I understood why people come to Yogyakarta. The views were spectacular as the temple involved walking up many steps and it was surrounded by mountains and volcanoes. It was very busy and I was a bit of a celebrity-peoole asking for selfies with me and school children wanting to practice their English. I entertained it for a while but soon got fed up of conversations that could go no further than 'how are you?'. In Asia sometimes a safe white person you just have to be impolite otherwise you would never get anywhere, they are too interested in you. I stayed at the temple about an hour enjoying the views and the sculptures built into the wall, but I was nervous about getting wet on the way home and so didn't stay as long as I would have otherwise. Thankfully though we made it back completely dry and for the rest of the day there was only a few drops of rain. I was beginning to have a little bit of hope I would not have to stay in after 2pm everyday.

    I then took a walk through the market and ate far too much street food. I just wanted to taste a bit of everything! I had stringy fried egg on sticks, Tempe and vegetable salad, chili tempe and spinach and some soy dumpling dessert. I was totally stuffed! I walked it off around the textile market which was colourful, but so compact it was impossible to view anything properly. They had crammed as many stalls as possible pretty much on top of each other, I've never seen somewhere so tightly packed. I continued walking all the way to my yoga class and then after yoga I walked to a road that comes to life at night. There is a grassy square lined by a road and the road is filled with converted VW vehicles that have be adorned with lights and play awful children's music or pop music. The cars have been converted to run on peddles, so people peddle laps of the square in these bizarre vehicles. There is also lots of food stalls, it a place of much activity. I'm glad to have seen it and mostly glad that finally it was not raining in the evening. By the time I got home I had walked 15km, I was tired by happy this time after a good day out.

    This morning I woke up late and missed my chance to view the palace, the last thing I wanted to see in the city. It closes early because it is friday- Allah day. Instead I met a guy from couch surfing who took me out of the city to a beautiful viewpoint, called Jurang Tembelan that overlooks a valley in the forest. We sat at the viewpoint chatting off a couple of hours and then went for lunch, but unfortunately he took me somewhere western because he didn't seem to take me seriously when I said I love local food and the spicy stuff. But I had my first salad for ages and did quite enjoy the fact is as eating vegetables that aren't fried. He was a very interesting guy, 28 year old who was looking to change career and move to Bali. He is brought up Muslim but lost his faith many years ago, but still has to pretend or else his parents would be devastated. It was very interesting hearing his experience and he taught me a lot about Java and Yogyakarta. It was a great final day and unlifted my whole experience here. I had been wondering why I was staying so long, but now it was worth it.

    I am now on a train that travels overnight to Bunyawangi, which is on the far Eastern coast of Java. In the morning I will take a boat to Bali and here I have booked a 4 day yoga retreat, as a great for my birthday. It is in a very remote part of the island, within a village. The retreat focuses on yoga and cultural experience, so we stay with a local family and get fed local vegetarian food. We do a yoga class in the morning and the evening and then in the day there are cultural experiences, which I expect to be crafts and music as they are commonly practiced in Bali. I have told the retreat owners it is my birthday and they have given me a small discount and told me they will help me celebrate. But mainly it is my treat to myself to not have to think about anything for a few days, to be absorbed in nature and to practice yoga.    Læs mere

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    Fairwell to Jakarta and Marla

    7. marts 2019, Indonesien ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    Sunday morning we were woken ridiculously early by a sound that I thought was afterparty of the jazz festival- loud music and many people were outside our accomodation. When I looked outside at 5am I saw the road was closed and a stage and been put up, on which people were dancing in aerobic fashion. The place was jumping with activity and hundreds of scooters lined the street-what they had all arrived on. It turns out that Sunday is a big day in this city and that the locals all take the opportunity to get their exercise in the early hours. That night the streets transformed again and a market arose, with children's rides and all sorts of bizarre stalls amongst the usual clothes and foods. It was quite surreal that our residential area could become something so spectacular within hours.

    Other than having no sleep because of Allah calls and the exercise performance. During the day on Sunday we met up with some of Marla's boyfriends friends- he used to live here so he put us in touch with some people. It was our last night together and the guys were quite hilarious company, so we ended up drinking at our place into the evening and impressing each other with ridiculous dance moves.

    Then we had the next day to enjoy together before Marla flew home on Monday evening and I spent the night in a hostel near to the train station. It was a heartfelt goodbye, having spent every minute together for over a month it feels weird when someone will not be by your side. Even the past couple of nights when we have had our own rooms to sleep in we have found it weird waking up alone......but we are planning the next reunion and my adventure continues alone. I am looking forward to having some time alone to relax, reflect and be healthy.

    That night a huge storm broke out and it sounded so fierce I thought it was a tsunami or an earthquake about to happen. I had to remind myself I was in inland and that it wasn't actually a Tsunami! It basically then rained until I arrived in Yogyakarta, and for several hours after that- about 20 hours! But I've save details of that for another entry!    Læs mere

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    Jakarta Jazz Festival

    2. marts 2019, Indonesien ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    We are staying in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia for a few days because it is hosting a huge Jazz Festival. It is a big event that brings in artists from all over the world. The city is big, hot, humid and polluted, so it is a bit of an attack to the senses. But it is worth it, for the music. We are staying in an apartment near to the festival and spending our days relaxing in air conditioning, because it is a Muslim country and the pool at our place does not welcome bikini clad beer drinkers. Then we head into the festival in the evening.
    Last night I danced like I had never danced before, it felt amazing to hear awesome music and be able to enjoy the sounds around me at long last. I think the deprivation of good music for the last month made it 100s time more enjoyable and therefore I danced myself so sweaty with such intense enthusiasm that I ended up having multiple people film me. If I can ever find the footage I am sure it will make me laugh, but the moment was so good I just did not care what a spectacle I was, my eyes were closed and I lost myself entirely to the music. We have another 2 nights to go! I think in three days at this festival I will make up for the month of being idol in Philippines, because this dancing exercise is the best work out I have had in ages!

    The festival is at an exhibition center and has 11 main stages and multiple stalls with smaller acts. There are grand pianos, trombones, drums, trumpets, clarinets, saxophones- I am in my element!

    At the end of the festival we have a day together and then Marla flies home in the evening and I will spend one night in a hostel before taking an 8 hour train to Yogykarta-a city in Eastern Java that is recommended due to its temples and natural surroundings.    Læs mere

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    Rounding off the Philippines

    28. februar 2019, Filippinerne ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    Last post I made we were in El Nido. We have had a pretty cruisy, relaxing time since then so I haven't got that much to say. We spent a day diving in El Nido and had 3 varied dives. The second was beautiful, we saw huge schools of yellow fish above a field of cabbage coral. We also saw sea turtle, although not such close encounters as previously, and some really cool pipe fish that. Pipe fish are in the sea horse family and these ones looked much like sea horses, they were cleverly camouflaged to look just like the coral they were floating next to. And we saw a huge crocodile fish, which I have never seen before. So all in all a pretty good days diving, although I didn't feel as comfortable as usual-the equipment wasn't as comfortable as I had on the live aboard.

    After that we took a bus to an apartment 40km north of Puerto Princessa. Marla had it booked as a birthday treat from her parents, and it certainly was a treat. We each had our own double bed, it had air conditioning and hot high pressure water. The water in El Nido smelt disgusting and was a dribble and we have never had hot water, so this felt like heaven! The place had a swimming pool and was within the countryside in a peaceful spot that tourists don't usually stay in. We spent a day relaxing, it was bliss. Every now and again when traveling you just need to stop and recharge, because it can become exhausting have fun packed days every day!

    Then the next day we took a tour to the world's longest navigatable underground river. Thankfully our accommodation was quite near to it, because the tours normally leave Puerto Princessa and take a whole day because of the journey. There was a lot of waiting around and being queued up with hundreds of other tourists,because it is the main attraction of the area. The tour of the river itself lasted about 45 minutes and was on a small boat, rowed by a local. It was meant to be a silent tour, we each had an audioguide to listen to as we passed through the caves so that they could preserve the natural environment as much as possible. However our boat guide decided to talk through a lot of it, so the peace was distorted and it was quite frustrating. The river is under a limestone mountain and meets the sea. As we traveled through we saw hundreds of bats and birds and heard about the marine life that lives there. There were also many stalagmite and stalatmites that had formed over years and the commentary pointed out how some of them resembled biblical scenes, animals, fruits and vegetables and other various things. It was quite a beautiful journey and the commentary made it more interesting.

    We enjoyed our last evening relaxing at the pool in our accommodation and then the next day began the journey to Jakarta, Indonesia-Marlas final destination with me.

    We have spent a whole month in the Philippines and were sad to leave, but also had some things to look forward to. The music in the Philippines is absolutely atrocious- offensively cheesy and romantic, high pitched and poorly written. Yet the locals seem to enjoy it so much that they sing along or perform karaoke throughout the day,making it even more painful to hear. I can honestly say I have never been less inspired by music ever. And we were leaving to form to Jakarta Jazz Festival, so we had good music to look forward to at last. Also the local food has been less than tempting and we have hardly eaten any philipino cuisine because it is all meat based deep fried rubbish served with a mountain of rice. Although we have seen a lot of evidence of vegetables growing we are left wondering for that purpose, because the Philippine diet ommits anything of any colour or nutritional value. So we were looking forward to arriving in Indonesia where it is easy to be vegetarian and possible to eat things that aren't deep fried. Finally the airport's within the country are an absolute joke and have the most ridiculous system that would test Mother Theresa's patience. I don't want to do into detail, because I would rather forget my time spent in airports than relive the torture.....but it was another reason to be glad to leave.

    Otherwise the country has been a treat, naturally incredible beautiful and the locals care about their environment and the wider world's environmental issues. Therefore it was clean, recycling was highly encouraged, food waste discouraged,, water was always available to fill bottles to reduce plastic use and many areas were protected with restrictions to maintain their natural state. It is a really refreshing experience to travel in Asia and feel that the environment is a priority, this is the first place I have been that seems to care as much as the more developed world does. This is a country that should remain beautiful for years to come. We have seen just a few of the 7000+ islands that make up the Philippines and they were all incredibly beautiful and had unique features within their landscape. The waters here are pristine with an array of beautiful colours and the marine life is addictive. So despite the negative aspects of the country I would return time and again and recommend the country for a visit.    Læs mere

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    El Nido

    24. februar 2019, Filippinerne ⋅ 🌙 26 °C

    On Friday we took the ferry from Coron to El Nido. El Nido is a town in the North of Palawan, a long Island on the west of Philippines. It is known to be good for diving and island hopping, and to be one of the more beautiful parts of the country.

    The journey was meant to take 3 hours, but ended up consuming our entire day because we had to get there one hour before leaving just to sit in a terminal. Then we boarded late, sat on the boat for ages before leaving and the journey itself took 4 hours. So we arrived at El Nido at sunset. We passed many beautiful, uninhibited islands on the way and a couple of impressive local sailing boats, wooden with multiple sailes. Immediately upon arriving we like El Nido, it was cleaner and quieter than Coron with pedestrian streets lined with nice cafes an restaurants. We had a nice dinner on a roof top and then took a trike to Coring Corong, a quiet bay 2km away. With no booking we walked until we found somewhere with rooms and ended up about 20 meter from the beach. Our room is a significant upgrade from Coron-we have air conditioning, space around the bed and en suite and a balcony. And now noise. Previously we had no space, a fan, shared bathroom and were right above a very noisy bar with terrible live music. The Philippinos love their music and singing, but unfortunately have an atrocious taste in music. It often sounds like a cat is being strangled and that somehow the people near the cat feel the need to attempt a harmony for the cat. My personal view is to kill the cat. I can't wait to hear good music again.

    Going back to El Nido, yesterday we took a wander and spontaneously joined a fancy boat trip. It was a big local boat, with space for 32 but there were 16 of us so there was lots of space to lounge around. They fed us all day and provided nice drinks. And we visited lots of beautiful locations. Some of which we the only people at, because the boat timed its route to avoid the masses of tourists. We went to a beautiful lagoon, two hidden beachs that you had to swim through tunnels to get to, some caves and some coral garden snorkelling spots. The landscape around here is totally stunning . Island upon island on the horizon and big sheer limestone cliffs towering over the sea.    Læs mere

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  • Kirstoire MacleanStoire’s winter escapeRejsende

    Few days boating

    22. februar 2019, Filippinerne ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    We spent another few days in Coron. One day we just took easy and went to a local beach and then climbed 721 stairs to the viewpoint over the city. It was a very sweaty walk, even though we did it later in the day.

    Then we ended up on a private yacht ...as you do! Our friend Skinku has a yacht in a boatyard back in Cebu and someone he met at the boatyard had brought his catermeran down to Coron, so we spent two days sailing around the local islands with him and his dad. We hired a 'Chariot' vehicle to drive there, which was an adventure of its own. It is like a TukTuk, or what is known as Habul-Habul here- a carriage attached to a 125cc motorbike. It was a bumpy ride and very well driven by Shinku. The journey took about an hour from Coronary to Conception, where the boat was anchored.

    He is an Irish captain of a brand new boat that he has just put into the water, with family visiting from the UK ,so it was a bit of an adventure for all of us. It is a beautiful boat and very nice sailing experience. It was really nice to be back on the water this way. Marla and I were negotiating crew jobs with the captain, but I have since decided not to go down that route as it was a very boosey couple of days and I would rather not live on a boat with alcohol having such a high presence in every day.....so I will indeed go back to the real world and my job at home.

    (Speaking of which I have just booked my flight home on April 8th, I have my first shift back at work on April 11th. And I have found somewhere temporary to live so that I can find a permanent new home once I am back and able to view places. )

    We sailed to Pass Island one day and Pamalican Island the second day. Pamalican island was beautiful as it had no other boats there. The islands in this area are incredibly beautiful, white sands, turquoise sea and surrounded by coral. But they are often littered with tourists and boats, which takes away some of the beauty. So it was great to find a spot no own else was at.    Læs mere

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  • Kirstoire MacleanStoire’s winter escapeRejsende

    Coron and around

    20. februar 2019, Filippinerne ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    On the day we got off the dive boat it was Marla's birthday, so we started celebrating early. We were woken by the chef and cruise director, who entered our room with cake and bloody Mary's. We had to disembark early in the day, but we continued celebratimg at the resort one of our new friends was staying on-muxh nicer than our backpacker budget accommodation! We spent the day drinking and in and out of the swimming pool, then we went back to our place where our friends from Singapore were. We all planned to travel together to Coron, which involved taking a flight at 5am. Needless to say at 3am I was not at my best, after two days of celebrations. And by the time we arrived at Coron I was pretty much at my worst, just needing some sleep.

    Coron Island is part of the western region of Philippines, known to be very beautiful and on teh standard tourist route. We are spend the next 10 days exploring here and travelling down Palawan Island.

    On the first day, after a long nap, we hired mopeds and went to explore come off he surroundings. The roads are in appalling condition and create pretty tricky driving conditions, but we saw some nice views and started to get a feel for the area.

    Coron town is nothing special to speak of,but in the surrounding waters are beautiful lagoons,impressive rock structured islands and multiple shipwrecks. It's a great spot for island hopping,diving and snorkeling. Today we took a tour on a private boat to some of the famous locations. We went to a beautiful fresh water lagoon, some coral garden snorkeling spots,a shipwreck and a couple of beautiful inlets. The water is a stunning turquoise coulour and the islands look like something out of Jurassic Park. It has been beautiful sunny days, the colours everywhere are vibrant.

    The safety regulations here have caused some amusement. We have to wear life jackets on the boat, when within eyesight of the coast guard. And we were not allowed into the fresh water lake without wearing them,because the water is less buoyant than the sea-even if we can swim! However to embark the boat it involves a sketchy jump from land onto one boat, then walking along one boat and taking another huge step to our boat. This part we didn't have to wear life jackets for, even though it was the time we felt most vulnerable and it was within eyesight of the coastguard. On the way back to disembark they held a plank of wood with their feet and a long wooden rod with their hands, so that we could walk along the wood using the wood as a hand rail-it was a very sketchy set up…..but we all made it, splash free.    Læs mere

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  • Kirstoire MacleanStoire’s winter escapeRejsende

    Quick update

    18. februar 2019, Filippinerne ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    We spent a week on a dive boat and then the next day flew to Coron, and island on the west of Philippines. I am in the process of writing a detailed blog post about the boat, but I am living a very social time with friends from Singapore. So watch this space....Læs mere

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  • Kirstoire MacleanStoire’s winter escapeRejsende

    The dive boat experience

    12. februar 2019, Filippinerne ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    The Live-aboard experience.

    On Sunday, from Cebu Marina we got on board the Inifiti; a boat that is built specifically for recreational diving. It is the most luxurious and extravagant thing I have ever booked as a backpacker and so I didn't know what to expect from the other people on board, but they weren't going to be other backpackers!

    There is room for 22 guests altogether, on our trip we are 19. It is mixed group of nationalities; South Africans, Australians, Americans, Chinese and a few of us from various place in Europe. The director of the boat is a young guy from Ukraine and his Taiwanese girlfriend is one of the main dive guides. The crew are all phillipino and there are plenty of them-boat guys, dive guides, chef and kitchen staff, captain and assistant and housekeepers. So there are a lot of us, but it is quite a big boat so it's certainly not crowded. Most of the guests are very experienced divers, some are instructors themselves and most have done a live aboard before. So I am the baby of group, in experience, but not age-the age range is between 18-72. We all have a shared interest and each day as we come back from dives we have more to talk about, we have communal meals and free alcohol on board….so naturally it has began to feel like we are one big family. To begin with I felt it was a lot of dive junkie enthusiasts and that I would not keep up with the chat, but actually we find plenty else to talk about and friendships are being formed.

    The boat is a 48 meter yacht with 4 floors, 11 guests cabins, a huge sundeck, large dining area, room dedicated to computer and camera gear, a deck for dive equipment and a launch deck for the dingys. We reach our dive sites in smaller boats and we roll off them into the sea.

    The boat slogan is 'Eat. Dive. Sleep.’ and this is exactly what we did. The days started between 6.30-7.30am and we would do 3-4 dives a day, taking longer sails overnight to reach a new dive site and shorter sails in the afternoon to reach anew dive site. We could do 2-3 dives on one site, taking a different part of the reef or different side of the island. Most sites were coral walls or coral gardens that were just off the coast of a beautiful island. The best dives were usually the early morning ones, as we started before other divers who need to travel from land and therefore we had the peace of the site all to ourselves. We also did one night dive, which was incredibly peaceful and where we saw lots of weird looking creatures that come out after dark. The best dives we did we would see multiple sea turtles and have very close encounters, many eels, clown fish and lion fish everywhere and some hugemongous schools of sardine and jackfish. I've never seen anything like it, the size of the schools make you feel so small even though the individual fish are really small. Altogether we did 17 dives in 5 days at a maximum depth of around 30 meters and maximum time of one hour. The deeper you go the quicker you use your air and our dive guide would spend a lot of time in the depths so we rarely met full dive time, which was slightly annoying. We were put into groups of 4-5 and had an experienced guide who had dived the sites many times and could lead the way. It's necessary when you aren't experienced to manage your own dives, but the divers who were instructors themselves could manage the route themselves.

    Being underwater is one of my favourite places, it is so peaceful and can be incredibly beautiful. I liken it to safari in africa-there is always anticipation that an encounter can be about to happen. And you can observe the natural behaviours of the creatures in the sea-mating rituals, feeding, sleeping and cleaning each other or themselves on coral. It's a fascinating world down there and in this week I have cherished the moment. Whenever I am having a hard day at work I imagine being under the sea and so every time I went down I reminded myself this.

    Other than the diving the trip basically involved eating and sleeping. The food was incredible and there was plenty of it. And the alcohol was all freeze so we would enjoy sunset with beers together every evening. Once we finished our last dive of the trip we drank the bar dry and had a song and dance celebrating birthdays-there had been 3 of them during the week.

    It was a great week, something I would definitely do again. It is so nice not having to think about anything, everything being organised for us. I read a whole book and switched off to everything other than the Ocean. Bliss.

    The route we covered and name of the dive sites is on a photo below.    Læs mere

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  • Kirstoire MacleanStoire’s winter escapeRejsende

    Beautiful island of Siargao

    9. februar 2019, Filippinerne ⋅ 🌧 27 °C

    We took a 40 minute flight from Cebu to Siargao on 6th Feb and have really enjoyed our time here. The flight was beautiful, giving us great views over the country. We came to Siargao because Marla's friend owns a hostel here, we knew not a lot else. We arranged to meet two more of Marlas friends here as well and we have all loved the island. It is a not huge island and doesn't reach great elevation, but it is covered in Palm trees. Even on the beach there are palm trees dotted around in the sand. It is beautiful and nice and cooling to get natural shade from the burning sun. One of the main things people come here for is surfing, because it has good waves for surf. So it is the kind of place that people get stuck in, living the life of surf by day and party by night. We've met many brave people who have moved here from Spain and are starting out businesses to make it their future home. It's probably a good move though, as the place is rapidly developing and so property values are increasing by 183% a year!

    We haven't been surfing, but spent yesterday afternoon watching the crowds of people making their attempts at it. It's good for beginners and professionals, so there is a good range to view.

    On our first day we hired a boat and and a tour of some of the local islands. We were meant to stop on 3 islands, but we enjoyed the second so much we stayed there for ages and just viewed the third one. We bought a huge tuna in the market and had it booked on the barbecue with some mango and watermelon. It was delicious, and an incredible feast. We got through a fair few beers and had a brilliant day.

    The theme has basically been beers and good food. Here they have food of all nationalities, we are spoilt for choice. It's been a really relaxing and fun few days, everything I expected of this country-good vibes, weather, views, water and sunshine. Perfect!    Læs mere

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