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Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia
  • Gina Steiner
  • Gina Steiner

Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia

A 70-day adventure by Gina Read more
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  • Gina SteinerCambodia, Vietnam, IndonesiaTraveler

    Near Quy Nhon, Vietnam

    January 11, 2020 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    We’ve almost reached our final destination. I checked out a hotel in a small fisher village near Quy Nhon. Before we reached Quy Nhon we passed through long rice areas and now people tighten you seatbelt, because now we need to go through the city at rush hour to reach our final destination...Read more

  • Gina SteinerCambodia, Vietnam, IndonesiaTraveler

    Khu Vuc, Vietnam

    January 12, 2020 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    This is the view from our current room, atm we’re staying at a small guesthouse owned by a Vietnamese family located in a small fisher village. These round „baskets“ are used to transport goods from the ships to the beach and vice versa. It doesn't look like it at first glance, but these round boats are surprisingly stable in the water. The Thung Chai, as the Vietnamese name is, are originality made of bamboo and coated with a resin.Read more

  • Gina SteinerCambodia, Vietnam, IndonesiaTraveler

    Khu Vac, Vietnam

    January 14, 2020 in Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    This is our „breakfast view“. Today’s task was to think about where to go from here. So we decided to leave tomorrow and go by car 🚙 to the train station in Dieu Tri and travel by train 🚂 to Da Nang. We will stay there over night and fly ✈️ the next day over Kuala Lumpur to Medan on Sumatra 🗾. So tomorrow and the day after we will be on the road 🛤 again...Read more

  • Gina SteinerCambodia, Vietnam, IndonesiaTraveler

    Da Nang, Vietnam

    January 15, 2020 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    After our train 🚂 ride we arrived pretty relaxed in Da Nang for an overnight 🌝 stay 🛌. Although our train left an hour too late in Dieu Tri, we managed to arrive in time here. I definitely prefer traveling by train 🚂 over bus 🚌 , plane ✈️ or car 🚗 . It’s a pity that either it takes too long over long distance or that there are not so many cities connected by trains in general. But for traveling between big cities not that far away from each other it’s *the* choice.
    Tomorrow we have a longer distance to go (Sumatra 🗾), so we need to go by plane ✈️ - “pigs transport” 🐖 🐖 🐖 as Rainer likes to call it 🤪.    Read more

  • Gina SteinerCambodia, Vietnam, IndonesiaTraveler

    Da Nang airport, Vietnam

    January 16, 2020 in Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    This is a pretty cozy airport, relaxed and very well organized, although it’s the third biggest airport in Vietnam 🇻🇳. It is located in the *middle* of the town, you can go there by foot (if you like 🤪, I know, I know you think I did, but I didn’t). The only thing which you have to keep in mind is, that you have to pass the document check counter in addition to the security check. Although the security check is pretty fast, the document check takes quite a while, because they check the document of every passenger. They move pretty fast, but there are a lot of people.
    The only thing which is weird: the stores are amazingly expensive. We tried to get rid of our last dongs (8€) but is was not possible, because there was nothing for 8€ 😳.
    So now boarding starts to Kuala Lumpur...    Read more

  • Gina SteinerCambodia, Vietnam, IndonesiaTraveler

    Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    January 16, 2020 in Malaysia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    We had a bit delay, so we only have 3h overlay here in Kuala Lumpur.
    They have free water cooler here - that’s definitely a great thing! It’s the first airport here in Asia I saw this. They use the regular water cooler used in offices.
    I know the water refill and drinking stations at airport Hamburg, but since we have pretty good tap water 💦 in Hamburg, it’s not *that* exceptional.    Read more

  • Gina SteinerCambodia, Vietnam, IndonesiaTraveler

    Bukit Lawang, Indonesia

    January 19, 2020 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    Toady we arrived at the boarder of the jungle 🌴🌿🌱🌴🌿🌱, tomorrow we‘ll go on jungle trekking for 2 days. I‘m reaaaaaaaally curious about it! What kind of animals I’m going to see.... maybe Orang Utans? And what animals I’m going to hear at night, when we sleep in the jungle...
    But this is tomorrow... Today I’m going to jump into the water, because we have our own private „pool“ in the river. The people love to do „local“ rafting here and that’s what I‘m going to do at the end of our jungle trekking or after it: raft along the river 🤪. So I assume today and the next three days are going to be awesome ❤️.    Read more

  • Gina SteinerCambodia, Vietnam, IndonesiaTraveler
    2

    Gunung Leuser national park, Indonesia

    January 20, 2020 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Today we started our hiking tour through the Gunung Leuser national park. The idea was to watch orang utans 🦧 and we found some. Not only some, we were lucky and found a LOT 🦧 🦧 🦧. We also found the boss and he not only has an impressive body size but also an impressive „language“. You really have to be carful when you meet him and keep your distance. We also found two mums with her babies 👶 . It’s amazing how this huge animals „fly“ through the trees...
    We were not the only ones around but some people never listen... although you are told: stay away some meters, this are wild animals, people need to go nearer and nearer to get the „best shot“ 📸. At some point one orang utan 🦧 was pissed and ran behind one guy. The guy ran away his backpack 🎒 only over one shoulder. The orang utan 🦧 grabbed the backpack 🎒 and took it up the tree 🌳. So now the situation was: a shocked guy, no backpack and a girlfriend shouting: „You fucking idiot!„ - the orang utan 🦧 was relaxing up in the tree 🌳 and opend the backpack 🎒 after some time. He carefully checked everything for edibility and dropped one after the other: toilet paper, t.shirt, purse 👛... in the end the empty backpack 🎒. The guy was sooooooo happy 😌. I would say: lessons learned 🤪.
    So we went up and down and up and down and up and down and.... well you got it... through the jungle looking 👀 for animals. We not only found orang utans but also snakes 🐍, big insects 🐜, tucan, black gibbons and for sure the long tail macque (which is all over, especially at our hotel. The try to steal everything so you have to be very careful). And for sure we found an amazing jungle with huge and diverse plants 🌴🌿🌱🍃🌳.
    The trail was demanding and it took us 6h all together including some resting for food. It was hot but most of the time we were in the shadow but the heat is not the problem but the high humidity. When we reached our jungle camp we were happy, speechless and very tired...    Read more

  • Gina SteinerCambodia, Vietnam, IndonesiaTraveler

    Jungle camp, Gunung Leuser national park

    January 21, 2020 in Indonesia ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

    Yesterday evening we arrived safe and sound in our jungle camp 🌴. It was quite a hard trail because it was raining 🌧 the night before we left, so the trail was muddy in some parts and especially when you have to climb 🧗‍♀️ down (and I mean climbing not walking) you really had to be carful (it’s quite steep). So after arriving we took a refreshing swim 🏊🏼‍♀️ in the river 🌊 and got an awesome candlelight 🕯 dinner 🥘. In the night it rained 🌧 again - I guess this is why they call it rain forest 🌳🤪. But the next morning the rain was over and we got an awesome breakfast in our jungle camp. After that: rafting tiiiiiiiime 🌊 back to Bukit Lawang!Read more

  • Gina SteinerCambodia, Vietnam, IndonesiaTraveler

    Bukit Lawang, Indonesia

    January 22, 2020 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    After our jungle hike we decided to stay around for another day, because it’s quite chilled here. The temperature at night 🌙 is great, the air good most of the time (sure they also burn 🔥 plastic here, but not that often) and when it’s too hot 🥵 over the day you simply take a seat 💺 in the river 🌊. They have a small bridge 🌉 over the river and a „public bath“, what else do you need?Read more

  • Gina SteinerCambodia, Vietnam, IndonesiaTraveler

    Medan, Indonesia

    January 22, 2020 in Indonesia ⋅ 🌙 28 °C

    We‘re back in Medan for one night, Tomorrow we want to go to lake Toba by bus 🚌 - let’s see how that works out.
    Btw this are the rice fields here, it’s only one week until harvest. They install nets and ropes over it. The ropes are connected to metal plates which make noise when you pull the ropes. So all ropes come together at one point at a small perch where someone is sitting and pulling the ropes when there are too many birds 🐦 on the field.Read more

  • Gina SteinerCambodia, Vietnam, IndonesiaTraveler
    1

    Lake Toba, Indonesia

    January 23, 2020 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Today we went to Lake Toba by bus - so after breakfast we called a cab by an app called gojek to the central bus station (what a relief, no more bargaining, not knowing the real price). At the bus station the bus was ready to go, what a wonderful coincidence ❤️.
    It was one of these Asian bus adventures - well I remember similar Nigerian bus adventures... I doubt that this bus would get any permission to do anything in Europe, nowhere in Europe... But everything went pretty smooth and after a short time we were well integrated in the bus community. 5,5h later we arrived at the lake and took a boat.
    This time we had to wait one hour until it left but it was fine for buying some fruit on the market and chatting with some people. The boat did not plan to go to our hotel but adding 30 cent per person, the captain dropped us directly at our hotel, which is at the shore of the lake. So now we’re laying on our deck chairs, enjoying the fresh breeze and enjoyable temperature. And tomorrow, we’re up for another adventure since we need to get our visa extended, and that can be quite an adventure in Indonesia... well, we’ll see 🤪.    Read more

  • Gina SteinerCambodia, Vietnam, IndonesiaTraveler

    Samosir, Indonesia

    January 24, 2020 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Today we found out, that you need to be at least 2 weeks in Indonesia, before you can extend your visa, so we couldn’t do that today. We used the opportunity to get all information, the forms and all copies, now we’re ready to go and we will do the extension next Wednesday. So we went to Parapat by ferry, visited the market and went for lunch. We also passed by Aek Nauli Elephant Conservation Unit. I did some research and found out that above all, the increasing conversion of the rainforest to farmland is endangering the Sumatra elephant as their natural habitat is becoming increasingly limited. The animals that are looking for food in the newly created plantations are driven out by the farmers, killed or locked up in camps. So this is one of this camps (similar to the one in Tangkahan). After I found that information I decided not to go there but found the Barumun Nagari Wildlife Sanctuary which imho is the better way to solve this. But Barumun Nagari would take some time to travel, so let’s see if we will travel there. In any case we will enjoy this wonderful lake for some more days...Read more

  • Gina SteinerCambodia, Vietnam, IndonesiaTraveler

    Tuk Tuk, Sumatra, Indonesia

    January 25, 2020 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Tuk Tuk is a place on the island of Samosir (island in Lake Toba) in Sumatra, Indonesia and has round about 2000 inhabitants. The people living here are called Batak (indigenous people on Samosir). Although Marco Polo reported rumors about man-eating mountain peoples, which he called "Batta", when he drove past Sumatra in 1292, it was not until 1824 that the first Europeans traveled to the Batak country.
    The Batak developed a warlike culture with many battles between the individual villages and practiced headhunting with ritual cannibalism. There is evidence of ritual ingestion of hallucinogenic mushrooms and the use of pupuk as a magic ingredient. Pupuk is said to have been prepared from human flesh (the brain and other parts of the body of a robbed and murdered child). Although you can still drink mushroom shake all over here, I think there will be no human meat in the BBQ tonight.
    The Batak bury the noblest of their dead in ancestral houses, which are decorated with carvings similar to their houses, or in stone tombs (the Tugu). The Batak houses have mighty curved gable roofs. Their wooden skeleton structure is traditionally covered with straw. Today, straw has often been replaced by corrugated iron. The different groups of the Batak have each developed characteristic house and architectural forms. A three-part structure consisting of the substructure, wall zone and roof can be roughly distinguished. The houses stand on piles, their front and back walls are inclined outwards and carved or decorated with decorative laces.
    The Batak came late under the influence of Dutch colonial rule compared to the other peoples of Indonesia. It was not until 1907, with the death of the last charismatic priest-king of the Batak, Sisingamangaraja XII, who had waged a long guerrilla war against the Dutch, that the Dutch gained complete control over the Batak.    Read more

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