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Sabbatical 2023

April - August 2023
Time for a break - The Tiki family on the move
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  • 54footprints
  • 6countries
  • 143days
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  • 30.9kkilometers
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  • TravelerSabbatical 2023
    Day 61

    Singapore

    June 7, 2023 in Singapore ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C

    A stopover of a few days in bloody hot and humid Singapore. Warmly welcomed by Claudia and family, we could stay in their beautiful house and explore from here some areas, such as the impressive Marina Bay Sands, the green Gardens by the Bay, Chinatown and eat at some of the popular, delicious and busy hawker food centres.

    Singapore is called garden city and is one of the greenest cities, everywhere you look you see plants and trees. Not only in the parks and botanical gardens but also part of the skyscrapers: interior, exterior, on the rooftop. Cool to see this green ambition in the urban planning.

    Colombian arepas, Dutch poffertjes, tropical fruits as breakfast and a fantastic dinner with ceviche, tortillas, paella amongst Colombians, Ecuadorian, Spanish and Dutch all living in Singapore. Well done to superhosts Claudia and Ernesto and of course Eduardo for being BFF of Yuna and Milo.

    Up to Indonesia!    Read more

  • TravelerSabbatical 2023
    11
    Day 65

    Indonesia - family time in Jakarta

    June 11, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C

    It has been a while for Kun (12 years) but first time for the rest. What a busy city, especially on the roads. Traffic jams everywhere and all the time, exception early mornings in the weekend. This week is all about family visits, relaxing, being spoiled, getting stuffed with Indo snacks, food and drinks, yummie!

    Completely recharged, we continue our Indo trip. First to Yogyakarta by train.    Read more

  • TravelerSabbatical 2023
    1
    Day 72

    Yogya

    June 18, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    Deactivate Jakarta spoiling mode and time for some action: where better than in traditional and artistic Yogya on central Java. Upon arrival on Sunday, we could immediately feel the liveliness on busy Jalan Malioboro with music, dance performances, street food.

    Yogya is the only city/region governed by a monarch so we thought let’s choose our base next to his palace, the Kraton, 12m2 hotelroom vs 1.4 hectares palace…. well actually more like a small village with 25000 people living, a mosque, shops, schools etc.

    We learned a bit more about batik, wayang kulit and golek puppet shows in the Sono-Budoyo museum, did some shopping and walked around the amazing Hindu temples of Prambanan and Buddhist masterpiece temple, the grand Borobudur.    Read more

  • TravelerSabbatical 2023
    Day 75

    Borobudur & Prambanan

    June 21, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Day tripping from Yogya to the Hindu temples of Prambanan, The huge complex from the 8-10th century AD has gone through quite some challenges: earthquakes, treasure hunters and just locals looking for building materials so many temples still need to be restored. The biggest draw are the 8 main temples in the central courtyard and are simply put impressive.

    We found a nice little oasis in the middle of the rice fields in Borobudur, also called the garden of Java because of its green rice fields, nature surrounded by volcanic peaks. Exploring the area on bikes, cooling off in the swimming pool, treated by amazing sunset colors and enjoying a fantastic dinner in the middle of the garden, ooh yeah tough life! Trying to catch sunrise with the Borobudur and infamous Gunung Merapi on the background, team KuMi is on it and took a scooter taxi at 5am, followed by a small hike to Punthuk Setumbu for fantastic vistas!

    After breakfast it is time to explore Borobudur from up close. This Buddhist colossal monument has been abandoned actually soon after its completion and was forgotten for almost a 1000 years. Earthquakes, jungle growing back, terrorist bombings, volcano eruptions, Boro had to endure quite some catastrophes and is now Indonesia’s nr 1 tourist spot.    Read more

  • TravelerSabbatical 2023
    1
    Day 78

    Cooling off in Batu & Bromo

    June 24, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Another train ride, this time to Surabaya where our little tour by taxi starts. First stop is Batu: its altitude, cooler climate, many theme parks a perfect getaway destination for the locals. We timed well to visit the enormous zoo including entertainment park together with all the locals whose school holidays just happened to start the day before. Well, still lots of fun and some well needed relaxation before the next challenge.

    And what a challenge it was. Being ready at 2am to enter the jeep going up all these hairpin curves, climbing a steep hill in the darkness (which was totally unnecessary… in hindsight), waiting in the cold (temperatures dropped to 10 degrees C) for probably the slowest sunrise ever. It seemed a bit too much for the kids: Poor Yuna fell asleep during moment supreme after screaming and crying. Milo almost fell asleep but the annoying drones from fellow tourists fascinated him and kept him awake.

    Once the sun is up, it is a matter of getting to the jeep quickly to go to the foot of the volcano and to avoid getting stuck in traffic amongst hundreds of other jeeps and motors. And then up to the rim of the crater through a sea of clouds and moon landscape, while also being interviewed by French television TV2. Kids did great this part so in the end worth the experience!    Read more

  • TravelerSabbatical 2023
    11
    Day 82

    Island hopping - Flores

    June 28, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C

    After Bromo, we spent an easy afternoon in Surabaya our final Java destination: visiting a submarine and museum about the battle of Surabaya (10 November 1945). From here we will hop on, hop off a few other Indo islands to start with the furthest, Flores named by the Portuguese some time ago.

    Labuanbajo is the little harbour town which is booming: fancy cafes and restaurants, dive shops, nice hotels and a lot of construction going on. It serves as the main gateway to the komodo’s, the beautiful snorkeling and diving spots and beaches of the surrounding islands. A multi-day boat tour is the best way to explore all of that but finding one was more challenging than anticipated. Apparently, the government appointed a few additional holidays around the islamic feast of sacrifice only a few weeks before and this extra long weekend resulted in a lot of bookings. Getting a boat for the days we planned seemed suddenly impossible. After lots of last minute contacting, organising, negotiating we luckily managed to find one.

    Time to relax in a Dutch owned hotel (20 years ago they started their hotel adventure here after having travelled here themselves) with one of the best views so far!!    Read more

  • TravelerSabbatical 2023
    Day 83

    Komodo tour part I

    June 29, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    What to pack for the boat trip? Swimgear - check!! Programme for the next 3 days: Snorkeling, swimming, beaches (even a pink one!!), delicious meals, surreal sunset/sunrise colors and hopefully meeting a special lizard.

    First day was just about getting into chill modus: enjoying the beautiful waters, first jumps from the boat, eating fresh fish. Unfortunately no manta rays and no flying foxes but lots of colorful fish and nice colors in the sky.

    Next day, Komodo time: the almighty Varanus komodoensis, worlds biggest lizard, alfapredator, cannibal, top of the foodchain, no one is safe for these fantastic creatures. Guided and protected (only a wooden fork stick) by a ranger we did a mini hike on Komodo island and managed to spot 8, a few big ones and a few small ones up in a tree. The weird part is that komodo’s may eat their young so once born, the young hide in the trees (where the big ones can’t climb because of their size) and live from fruits, insects, smaller lizards for 2-3 years.

    To be continued…    Read more

  • TravelerSabbatical 2023
    11
    Day 85

    Komodo tour part II

    July 1, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    After all the Komodo excitement, it was time to swim at Pink Beach. A mix of red microscopic organisms called Foraminifera and the remains of the red organ pipe coral makes this beach pink (only 7 in the world) and with the turquoise waters just absolutely stunning!!! We ended the day with sunset on Padar island (after seeing a group of dolphins) where the viewpoint on 3 bays is the main attraction.

    Last day we enjoyed more snorkeling and swimming. The kids got comfortable with their floaters and were not afraid to jump into the deep and just float around ;-)

    What a great and unforgettable experience!! Back ashore where a car is waiting to explore more of Flores island.    Read more

  • TravelerSabbatical 2023
    22
    Day 86

    Flores - Road Trip

    July 2, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    Road trip again!!! But now with a driver :-) Start Labuanbajo, end destination Maumere, mainly over the Trans Flores Highway. Not that far in a straight line but the many mountainous roads, the sometimes missing parts of the road, the holes to be zigzagged (especially if going off the main ‘highway’), blocking working trucks, lack of patience amongst some of us, made the travel time feel eternal.

    Culture and traditions are strong on this island, there are 5 main linguistic (besides bahasa) and cultural groups. On our way to Ruteng we first stop at the spiderweb rice fields: 12 ricefields shaped in what the name says, each belonging to a village of which each ‘slice of pie’ belongs to a family. In Ruteng we visit a traditional village Ruteng Pu, sleep in a homestay, have dinner in sarong with other guests and the man of house explains some of their traditions. Next morning we wake up early to see the sunrise without luck and continue with a nice hike through the (not spiderweb) rice fields.

    Bajawa, home to the Ngada people, is the next stop where we visit the traditional village Bena. Houses with high thatched roofs decorated with buffalo horns and jawbones, stone monuments for sacrificial events, the volcano Inerie looming on the background, quite the experience. Followed by a jump into a hot spring, filled by one hot and one cold stream.    Read more

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