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Moritz SieversMoritz Sievers
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  • Schleni on Tour
    Day 132

    That’s it. 🙋‍♀️

    December 26, 2022 in Indonesia ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C

    MAAF! Just discovered that I forgot to upload the last footprint of my journey 😅 but seems like I made some notes for that last one, so let me finish it so I can print the photo album 😊

    On our last day on Bali Mo and me went shopping some souvenirs and got stuck in the worst traffic we have ever seen! We had one last Nasi at Ubud and drove to the airport of Bali. Mo had to take an earlier flight, so I was waiting at the airport on my own for a while.

    I still remember some of the thoughts that were going through my mind at that moment - I was somewhere inbetween “soo happy to go back home, to see everyone again!” and “maybe I should just miss my flight, stay longer (or stay forever!?)” 😅

    While waiting for that flight I realised that this would be the last step of my journey. I put my earphones in and started the playlist that was created by all the people I met along the way (and got a little bit emotional). Then I tried to process everything that had happened in the last months (which was of course impossible) and wrote down some of my memories of the different countries that I travelled to:

    … Been kind of rushing through vietnam🇻🇳 for almost 3 weeks. A lot of Phó and Banh Mi. 🍜🥪 Always soaked in sweat. Some adventurous moments on the back seat of a scooter. 🛵 A lot of antiseptic spray. 😅Just about the right amount of rice wine. 🥃 Eating oreo cookies on way to small seats in sleeper busses. 🍪🚌 And of course uncountable karaoke songs. 🎤

    … Found a home and a routine near Chiang Mai in Thailand 🇹🇭 on my 4-week-yoga teacher training. 🧘🏼‍♀️Falling in love with vegan thai food (still missing it!). 🌱Studying the yoga philosophy, the chakras, the kriyas. 📖 Regularly meeting BIG spiders under the outdoor shower. 🕷️ Enjoying the salt water pool breaks with my pool buddy with all my heart. 🏊🏼‍♀️ Chanting the Gayatri mantra at sunrise and sunset. 🌅 Breathing in the fresh air on the mauna mornings next to the rice paddies. 🏞️ And last but not least: discovering the best carrot cake I have ever eaten. 🍰

    … Felt overwhelmed when I came to busy Jakarta on Java in Indonesia 🇮🇩 …is it already rainy season? 😳… So many people. 🏙️ So much pollution. Cultural shock. Getting used to the call of the muezzin. Learning the first steps of longboard surfing next to international professionals. 🏄🏼‍♀️ Meeting friendly Javanese people (‘sama sama!’). Discovering the magical island of Karimunjawa with my three friends (‘herzig!’). 🏝️ Seeing the plankton glowing in the night. 🌌 Climbing two of the Javanese vulcanos in three days and staying in strange hostels (‘sage mal bist du deppert?!’). 🌋 Eating dragon fruits all the time. The Nasi addiction is real. 🍛 Getting to know the scary bus mafia on endless bus rides. 🚌
    … Learning Balinese traditions and how to make the healing Jamu drink by myself on Bali. 🍶 Sharing my yoga passion with some Indonesian women. 🤸‍♀️ Martabak telor is still nice. 🥞 Discovering Bali with Mo and Fynn. 👯‍♂️ Learning how to ride a scooter the balinese way (which is freaking dangerous sometimes). Oh no, do bed bug bites look like this?? 🪳Watching gorgeous sunsets at the cliffs (‘you are given one sunset a day’). 🌅
    … Arrived at Lombok after a very long ferry ride (MAAF!). ⛴️ Enjoying Lombok surfing days (tiny waves club!). 🌊 Learning how to cook the Indonesian way. 👩‍🍳 Being annoyed by some intrusive Indonesian men but also experiencing the generosity of some others (‘yes this can, lene!’).
    … Snorkeling with magical manta rays on Nusa Penida. 🪸 And simply enjoying life on Nusa Lembongan.

    What a journey. So many priceless memories that I will bring back home.
    I tried to soak up all those experiences, encounters and learnings one last time and got on the plane back to Germany.    Read more

  • Schleni on Tour
    Day 131

    Room4Dessert 🍬

    December 25, 2022 in Indonesia ⋅ 🌧 24 °C

    On the first Christmas Day, Mo and me were looking for Christmas presents for our family members in Ubud. 🎄Actually it was fun to go from shop to shop by scooter, but Ubud wouldn’t be Ubud if it wouldn’t have been raining heavily the whole time. ☔️😄😬

    As Fynn had told us two days earlier, he had organized a Christmas surprise for Mo and me: he made a reservation at the restaurant „Room4Dessert“ for us and we needed to be there at 5 pm - without knowing any more 🤶🤩 so we went there (completely soaked) and needed a moment to warm ourselves up again until we could start the whole experience.

    We were told that there was a dinner awaiting us with 15 small courses - most of them desserts. Was that heaven?! 😄😳😍😇 we were guided into the first room and received our first 5 courses - mostly savoury ones and very interesting combinations. The waiters explained every course to us when they brought them to our table. Afterwards one of the waitresses guided us through the kitchen into the second room, where we received the next 5 courses: all of them desserts and soo delicious and special - this was indeed heaven! We were brought to the third „room“ which was outside. There we had another 5 small sweet bites. 🍬🍫 the whole evening was such a funny and special experience. It was more like a piece of art or music album (titled „the golden age“ ;))
    Terima Kasih to Fynn, for another fine dining Christmas experience which was special! 😊

    (Side note: the only bad thing that day was that I forgot my credit card at the atm before dinner and it was obviously stolen afterwards 🤯Luckily there was no damage but we were so shocked when we noticed that the card was gone 😱)    Read more

  • Schleni on Tour
    Day 129

    Christmas Eve🎄 …rainy Ubud part 2

    December 23, 2022 in Indonesia ⋅ 🌧 26 °C

    After our tattoo session we celebrated Christmas Eve in the CHORA restaurant and treated ourselves with a Fine Dining Vegetarian Christmas Menu 😍 they had a live band and the food was excellent 😍 probably we could have never paid for such a menu in germany so we were happy that we chose to go there - it was a really nice (and quite romantic😌) evening 🤶🧡🎄

    PS: and of course - because it’s Ubud - it was raining like hell on our way to the restaurant👍🏼😩😅so we didn’t even put on clothes that looked elegant because we knew that we would be wet as soon as we would arrive at the restaurant😄    Read more

  • Schleni on Tour
    Day 129

    Karma House 🕉

    December 23, 2022 in Indonesia ⋅ 🌧 26 °C

    On the 23rd december we went back to Bali because we had an appointment at a tattoo studio on Christmas Eve.
    When our fast boat left Nusa Lembongan we noticed how choppy the ocean was due to the storm that had come up in the last days. Both of us were a little bit afraid during the first minutes of the trip - it was so bumpy and water sprayed through the windows 😬- but luckily a few more minutes later the ocean seemed to be way less choppy and we felt safe again. 😮‍💨
    When we arrived at the harbour in Sanur we were quite happy that this had been our last ferry/ fast boat trip 😅 we went to our accommodation in Ubud by shuttle, rented a motorbike and drove to a medical care center. I was a little bit worried because my health condition hadn’t really improved in the last days and wanted to do a health checkup. Also Mo had stepped on a coral reef while surfing on Lembongan and it seemed like it was a little bit infected. The health consultation and treatment was surprisingly professional. They cleaned Mo‘s wounds and took a few tests to find out about my general health condition - seemed like there was nothing to worry about (which was especially important to me because we had the tattoo appointment on the day after). 👍🏼 we went to a small Indian restaurant and had such a nice evening. Even if we didn’t bring our Uno game, we ended up playing again because the restaurant had a few games there 😄 additionally their food was so delicious!

    Next morning we were already nervous about the appointment 😅 the Tattoo Studio Karma House had been recommended to me and seemed to be a nice place for a first tattoo. Mo and me had been thinking about getting one already years ago.
    We went to the studio and had a chat with Juke, who was the artist that wanted to design our tattoos. After one and a half hours he had designed both of our tattoos on his iPad and printed it for the tattooing process. We were SO nervous about how much it would hurt 😄 Juke started with my sunflower tattoo. The pain was actually not too bad but I found myself thinking things like: „What am I doing?!“ all the time😂 Mo was also very nervous, especially because he chose his lat and rips as body parts for his whale tattoo. He was so afraid that it would hurt too much but in the end he said it hadn’t been too bad - we were both so happy with our tattoos, we find it to be such s nice Balinese Christmas memory - but it’s still unreal that it is going to be there forever and 😄    Read more

  • Schleni on Tour
    Day 128

    Devil’s Tears 😈

    December 22, 2022 in Indonesia ⋅ 🌧 27 °C

    I was hoping for at least one surf on Nusa Lembongan, but sadly I didn’t recover during the time we stayed there. Mo tried to give me some comfort by telling me that the surfspots on Lombok had been way better than on Lembongan. Also the weather changed and it became quite stormy and the choppy waves at „Playground“ looked almost like in Denmark when I watched Mo from the beach.

    Although we didn’t do much in our time at Nusa Lembongan, Mo and me both really liked the island. It had a chilled vibe, many nice coffee shops directly at the beach and it was still not too touristy. The locals seemed to be very friendly and the roads were not too crowded. One day we went to see „Devil‘s Tears“, where the waves hit the shore heavily. It was very impressing 🌊🤯

    We already knew that we would be in Ubud during the Christmas holidays, but if we wouldn’t have had an appointment in Ubud, we could have imagined to stay on Lembongan over Christmas Eve also quite well - our host in our accommodation gave her best to spread some Christmas vibes for her guests 😄🎄
    It was such a nice guest house and the owners of the Warung right next to it (Cassava) were also very nice people, we had their delicious Mie Goreng multiple times🍝😍    Read more

  • Schleni on Tour
    1
    Day 127

    Das Café am Rande der Welt ☕️🏄🏼‍♂️

    December 21, 2022 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    Nusa Penida was a magical island - manta rays, unnatural blue water, the traditional locals… - but there was still one thing that draw our attention to travel to the neighbouring island of Nusa Lembongan: there was no surf on Penida island whereas on Lembongan there were said to be at least three surf spots. And since I was still to weak to explore a lot, at least Mo should have got the chance to catch more indonesian waves.

    So when we arrived on Lembongan, Mo rented himself a surfboard and tried out the different surf spots. I think he mostly surfed at a spot called „Playground“. One time a local accidentally drove him to „Lacerations“ instead - he told me that suddenly some waves barrelled🤯😰 so in the end he didn’t surf there for a very long time😅

    One day we visited „Mahana Point“ - a quite advanced surf spot, surfing there would have been way to heavy for us. We rather sat in the coffee shop which was located directly above the spot on a cliff. It was an awesome location and when the surf conditions were good you could observe the surfers right from there. It seemed to me like a coffeeshop at the end of the world, reminding me of the book „Das Café am Rande der Welt“. Mahana point is located on the smaller island Nusa Ceningan, connected to Nusa Lembongan by „The Yellow Bridge“. It was already an adventure to cross that bridge with our scooter 😅 on our way we passed by a graveyard where we could see that umbrellas were protecting each grave - I know from Denise, who already visited Nusa Lembongan, that the Balinese people share the belief that their ancestors still need to be protected from rain and sun even if they are already dead.

    While Mo was surfing every day on Lembongan I still recovered and stayed at the pool of our Guest house - which was also one of the best accommodations we had so far. Gladly I was healthy enough to go to Warungs in the evening together with Mo, but still Uno and reading were my major activities on the island. 😅    Read more

  • Schleni on Tour
    1
    Day 124

    Kelingking Beach 🦖

    December 18, 2022 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    We actually wanted to explore more of Nusa Penida’s nature, beaches and viewpoints, but unfortunately I felt sick the day after the snorkeling trip and needed to rest. So for two or three days we didn’t do much, but Mo brought me some food and we tried to make the best out of it. In the meantime Mo enjoyed our nice pool and we played a lot of Uno 🤷🏼‍♀️

    On the last day on Nusa Penida I felt good enough to drive to one of the viewpoints of the island. Kelingking Beach is one of the outstanding sights of the island but therefore unfortunately also a place where instagram bloggers are found the most 😅 the view on the T-Rex-shaped piece of the island looked special indeed. Mo wanted to climb down to the beach to see the clear blue water. I was waiting for him on top of the viewpoint and when he came back he seemed quite exhausted and said that he couldn’t finish to go all the way down, because it took more time than expected and we had to catch a boat to Nusa Lembongan a few hours later. On our scooter ride back we enjoyed the beautiful landscape of Penida Island one last time, and saw amazing old temples (which we couldn’t visit because we didn’t wear the right clothing 🤦🏼‍♀️😅).
    We dropped off the scooters at the harbour and had a funny boat ride to the neighbouring island of Nusa Penida: Nusa Lembongan. It was a very small boat which brought us and our backpacks to Lombongan in a 15 minute drive. Unfortunately only one of the two engines was working, so the boat was in inclined position the whole time. When we arrived on Lembongan, we were completely wet 😅 but we took it with humour and we’re happy to arrive safely on Lembongan.    Read more

  • Schleni on Tour
    1
    Day 122

    Manta Point 🪸

    December 16, 2022 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Mo and me booked a snorkeling trip with the dive company Pure Dive, because they were said to be the most ethical and environment-friendly ones on the island. We wanted to see manta rays, as it should be a once in a lifetime experience, without disturbing the animals.

    Our guide Sandra from Pure Dive explained to us, that we would be the only ones snorkeling, all the others ones on the boat would go diving. We were afraid that only the divers would be able to see the mantas, but Sandra told us that the likelihood should be quite high that the mantas would come closer to the water surface on that day aswell.

    When our boat headed towards Manta Point, it suddenly became very cloudy and windy and began to rain. When we finally reached the Point and our boat stopped we were veeery cold (maybe the first time for me in Indonesia?🥶) and also veeery happy that we took the pills that Sandra gave us against sea-sickness. 😅

    We couldn’t wait to go into the water (because it was warmer than the air 😅). When we were finally under the surface we followed our guide to the more shallow part near the cliffs. Suddenly we saw something veeeeery big and black swimming directly beneath us 🤯 I didn’t imagined the mantas to be THAT big 🫣 and at first Mo and me had to get used to be that close to the animals - we knew that the mantas shouldn’t be dangerous but they were about 2 to 4 meters in width so that was quite impressing 🤯They were so beautiful how they were slowly gliding through the water 😍 swimming close to them was indeed an amazing experience ✨
    The second snorkeling spot that we headed for was underwhelming (dead corals and only a few fishes), but Mo and me were still amazed by the experience of swimming next to the mantas so it actually didn’t matter to us.
    Since we forgot to take the gopro with us we were very happy to get some pictures and videos from the divers that went together with us!

    After our trip we changed our accommodation because the pain in my ear got worse and the doctor that I went to (a surprisingly professional one!) said to avoid going into the water and driving too much scooter. Since our bungalows were quite far from the main roads we chose a accommodation which was closer to some restaurants (…also the spider and cockroaches situation was getting a little bit annoying - in the evenings Mo and me always guarded each other while peeing or taking a shower😅).

    Our new accommodation looked amazing (and was also free of insects 😅). For dinner we went to a Warung that Denise recommend to us - we had the best watermelon juice so far and the food was also very good. 🌶    Read more

  • Schleni on Tour
    Day 121

    beautiful Nusa Penida🌴

    December 15, 2022 in Indonesia ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C

    After one last surf on Lombok and a last breakfast Mo and me had to say goodbye to Kuta Lombok, which felt kind of weird after we had stayed there for almost two weeks. Of all the places I have visited in Indonesia I also consider it most likely to go back to Kuta Lombok some day - I really like the surf and the vibe there!! 😊

    Our lovely host drove us to the harbour and we took a fast boat to Bali to then take a shuttle which would take us to another harbour where we could finally leave for Nusa Penida 😮‍💨. There are also direct fast boats from Lombok to Nusa Penida but they are only offered by the company “Golden Queen” which had such bad reviews (“we almost capsized” or “people were vomiting everywhere and the crew didn’t care”) that we decided for the save way and wanted to take two separate companies with good reviews even if that meant a layover in Bali. What we of course couldn’t know when we were booking was that our first fast boat would be cancelled…which was why the company had to put us in a boat of another company and suuurprise that was the Golden Queen one - so we could have taken the direct fast boat to Penida anyway 😂

    At least the fast boat drive was better than we expected it to be (even if it was quite hot, sweaty and loud) and we arrived at Sanur Harbour in Bali. The harbour was probably the most modern thing I saw in whole Indonesia 😅😯 Mo explained to me that it was built for the G20 summit which took place in November 2022 in Denpasar so that the important people which would like to visit the small islands around Bali would have a good experience - which is for sure not the authentic one 😂 I was almost overwhelmed by so much tidiness and organization 😄

    Anyway, in the end we made it to Nusa Penida where we had already organized for two scooters to be dropped off at the harbour for us. It was such a good feeling to arrive in our homestay after one day of traveling! The Ayu Hill Bungalows where we stayed had a special atmosphere (on top of a hill with a view on the ocean and into the jungle) and the owner Made was very lovely. We also liked our semi-open bathroom until I saw suuuch a big spider 🕷 on the wall inside of it in the evening 🤯😂 during the teacher training in Thailand I got used to big spiders in bathrooms, but I always had the choice to use another one in case I would see one 🫣… which wasn’t the case this time 😅 in the end we asked Made to remove it, because Mo wasn’t keen on meeting it aswell 😬 we were so happy to have our mosquito net hanged over our bed because in addition to the spider and the mosquitos that we saw, we also had many big cockroaches 🪳 in our room 😬😬

    On the next day we drove around Nusa Penida with the scooter - such a beautiful island! The Jungle, small villages and the cliffs next to the ocean could be admired directly from the roads that we were driving on. In the distance we could see Bali’s vulcano Mount Batur. Although I got pain in my ear that day we visited Broken Beach, which I found so be quite impressing, and Angel Billabong - the ocean in Nusa Penida seems to be more blue than in other places!

    When we randomly stopped at “Dolphin’s Beach”we accidentally saw some manta rays swimming directly under the water surface 🤯 we were quite excited (they looked so big!), especially as we had just booked our snorkeling trip for the day after, where we hoped to see manta rays under water. 😊    Read more

  • Schleni on Tour
    111
    Day 118

    No vulcano, but 7 waterfalls

    December 12, 2022 in Indonesia ⋅ 🌧 24 °C

    While we were hoping that Fynn wouldn’t get food poisoning from the Beef Rendang that he ate, it was Mo who got sick.
    We had no idea where it came from, but it seemed like Mo had food poisoning or a really bad sunstroke 😟 he had really bad stomach problems for about 3 days and had to stay at our hostel for two whole days, so we had to change our plans - actually we wanted to do a 2Day-1Night hike to the rinjani vulcano. We were all very disappointed, but tried to make the best out of the situation. Fynn and me tried to take turns to take care of Mo and bring him some food, so that Fynn could have some last surf sessions and I could do a day trip to see more waterfalls (which had actually been the plan for our time in Lovina back then when Mo and me had covid).
    The waterfall tour was nice (although I didn’t feel completely comfortable with the guide that I had to take there - on Lombok I unfortunately experienced many local guys who made some stupid jokes or made me uncomfortable in some way 😠).

    Buuut in the end I saw seven waterfalls and still had a good time exploring the hiking there. On the scooter ride I saw beautiful rice terraces directly next to the street and traditional villages. The most traditional village on Lombok is Sade, where I made a quick stop on my way back to Kuta. The houses in Sade look almost exactly like all the villages have been looking on Lombok more then 40 years ago. The people in Sade try to maintain the village and its traditions and are therefore partially funded by the Indonesian government.

    When I came home the three of us (Mo was fit enough again🥳) went out for a last dinner in Kuta together. The three of us had to share a scooter because we already gave the other two scooters back. Mo and me trusted Fynn to drive safe enough with the two of us on the backseat - at least he had gone all around Bali by scooter!! 😅

    In the restaurant we celebrated the three weeks that we had traveled together and the good time we had shared (despite all the illnesses we had to go through😅) with some delicious burgers…and Mo was finally convinced to buy a bracelet by the kids that (sadly) were seen a lot in the restaurants and Warungs, trying to sell a bracelet or a Sarong.

    On the next day Fynn was about to leave Lombok to go to Flores and Komodo and Mo and me planned to go to Nusa Penida one day after him.    Read more

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