Asia 2023

My second long-term solo-trip through Asia.🤩 Read more

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Asia 2023 Traveler
From Singapore to Malaysia 🚍🛂
August 29, 2023 in Malaysia ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C
As it's not really possible to go directly from Singapore to Sumatra, this is a great opportunity to visit another "missed spot" from my last trip in Malaysia 🥰

Having a nice bus ride out of Singapore, two separate border controls at each side of the bridge to Malaysia, nice local bus ride to Johor Bahru's central bus terminal "Larkin Sentral", now enjoying a very comfortable coach for a 3 hours ride 😎

Looking forward to enjoying Malaysia, again! 🤩🥰Read more
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Asia 2023 Traveler
Hari Merdeka - Independence Day 🥳🎉🎊❤️
August 31, 2023 in Malaysia ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C
Congrats Malaysia!
What an amazing way, to celebrate your Independence!
It started already at midnight with several private fireworks, but the big parade in the morning was not only a great great atmosphere in the crowded streets with happy, kind and caring people! It was a showcase of all the organizations, institutions, clubs, business organizations, young and old, all religions, modern and traditional, it felt like everyone took part and everybody celebrated!
People of Malaysia, Melaka, you've touched my heart and I'm so grateful I was able to take part at this awesome part of your life and your country!Read more
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Asia 2023 Traveler
Melaka, colorful city of lights
September 2, 2023 in Malaysia ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C
Melaka, or Malacca, with Jonker Street, a UNESCO world heritage site (together with the amazing Georgetown (Penang)), is a city full of life, loads of tourists, unique Trishaws (3 wheel bicycle-rikshas with crazy light and music), and an awesome mix of cultures, representing many aspects of Malaysia.
Thanks to my awesome host Sharon, there, I was able to do some hiking onto a hill nearby. I had a great time there and would recommend to anybody to stay at Sharom's small but very nice 3 little birds hostel!
Visited the local submarine museum (not so easy to enter a submarine in Austria 😅) and had a great and unique evening with Eric and Kevin, two amazing guys from Melaka, I was introduced by Nora, another traveler from Spain! We also did a scooter trip to Besar island, an interesting and a little bit mysterious island, close to Melaka.
Finally stayed nearly a week in Melaka, got kind of stuck there, in a great way! 🥰Read more
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Asia 2023 Traveler
Sumatra, smiling Indonesia
September 4, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C
Took a ferry from Melaka to Dumai on Sumatra. Dumai is an heavy industrial city with a huge oil refinery and oil harbor, so no place to stay.
But it is so nice to have such a nice, extremely warm welcome here.
Everyone smiles to us, lot of people, men and women, approach us, asking where we are from. And so many people are smiling, winking to us, very friendly, even some ordinary guys on scooter stopped by, asking if we need any help.
Nice start in Indonesia, great people, lot of smiling, I like my first impressions, here. 😎🥰Read more
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Asia 2023 Traveler
A journey to Nias island
September 6, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C
Melaka was great, but beaches and ocean were not really inviting and I now was really looking forward to some nice beach time, again. 🤩
So I decided to learn how travelling in Indonesia will be, by diving in full throttle!😅
Challenged myself to get from Melaka to Baloho beach on Nias island, at the west coast of sumatra, directly and asap. Well, it took me nearly three days. 😅🤣
Ferry from Melaka to Dumai on Sumatra was the most comfortable part, a nice, fast and modern ferry, where I met Mitso, another traveler from Greece.
Arriving at Dumai (my first drug control by a drugdog at the Pier 🫣) was smooth, Mitso and me walked into town, to explore and orientate. So I decided not to take directly the night bus, as I wanted to avoid travelling at night and get some first impressions from Indonesia.
That didn't work out well, as the morning bus had left at 7am 😅 So as bus travelling is organized decentralized by private companies here, I went around a lot asking for buses and prices, ended up in a minibus, heading from Sumatra's east coast to the west coast. Expecting a 13 hours ride in a 8 pax minibus, so lack of comfort was obvious, (as expected for Sumatra) but streets here and driving style, are ... different. When bus started, we were like 3 adults and 2 children, very spacious, but that changed soon, after some stops and 2 hours, we ended up with being 8 adults and 6 kids 🤣🤪
Locals are having an amazing superpower: After a break, they just jump into that bumping and shaking bus, crowded as hell, closing their eyes and having a great nap. Next stop they weak up, are proper relaxed, having some chitchat and some food, jumping in again, sleeping, aso... 😅
So lacking that superpower, I got like 3x 20 mins of sleep, so after arriving in Sibolga at around 8 am, I was wrecked.
Luckily I had like 12 hours to kill till the ferry would leave, so I directly went to the first hotel I found, got a room like Indian standard 🙈 (note to myself: remember that hotels in the harbor are ALWAYS shitty 😅), but finally had a great and very needed sleep for like 6 hours. 🤩
Buying a ferry ticket from Sibolga to Nias island wasn't that easy, no more ticket counter, only Online-Sales, but you need a local bank account 😱
Found some nice staff at the harbor, booking me on their account, charging a little, reasonable fee, so overnight ferry was ready to leave.
Ship was in a quite good shape (built 2016), beds were not really beds, but huge blank wooden bunk beds, biggest "dorm" I've ever seen, around 200 people in there. Of course I was the only foreigner on the whole ship, carrying about 350 pax in total.
Love sunrises on a ship, had a smooth and chilled trip, and finally arrived at Gunungsitoli, Nias' capital city.
Took two attempts to get to the bus terminal, unfortunately a more or less abandoned place. There had been several bus lines on Nias, nowadays only one from Gunungsitoli to Teluk Dalam is left, did not yet find out, what happened.
Public Bus was really nice, like an old small big bus, bumping and shaking was little less than in a Minibus 😅
Had a real cute puppy on my side, for a while, as always, passing through Nias daily life was so fascinating! As usual, any child seeing me looking out of my bus window, pointed at me and shouted "Bule", the local term for foreigners, or waved smiling, shouting "Hello Mister!" 😅
After uncounted selfies and telling from where I am, 3 hours later I arrived at Teluk Dalam, had a great welcome at my hostel and a nice evening! 🥰Read more
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Asia 2023 Traveler
Nias - Sumatra, but different
September 10, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C
After nearly 3 days in buses and boats, some relax time was needed. 😎
Hammock, beach, shower, snack, hammock, beach, shower ... 😅🥰
Salty Dog Hostel here is a great place to stay, some funny travelers around, very nice facilities and an awesome host!
I ended up in south Nias, Teluk Dalam is Nias' 2nd biggest city and famous Surfspot Lugundri is close by. So it's a little bit touristy, focused on surfers, but some travellers are around here, too.
Another nice coincidence: World Surf League has some Worldcup qualifying here, starting soon, there will be another footprint for that... 😎😅
So after recovering, I got a scooter to explore the island.
Nias in general has an incredible coastline, shallow reefs (many of them pushed up for 1 meter or so during the 2004 earthquake & tsunami), little beaches, mangrove wood coasts or steep rocky coasts. You can see it's volcanic origin everywhere the jungle hasn't captured the ground or the ocean breakers keep rocks free.
So it's covered with hills, streets going in steep curves up and down, very often in a bad shape or totally swept away, due to frequent heavy rainfalls.
In contrast to Sumatra, which is mostly a Muslim island, Nias population are mostly Christian, due to a German missionary, who was the first to survive encountering the local tribes in 19th century. All in all people seem to be very liberal and open minded, very friendly and welcoming. Giving me a friendly helping hand or even inviting or gifting me, happened a lot.
Going a few kilometers away from cities, soon gives a great impression of local life. Still often simple and not much developed, but very caring about each other, very talkative. Everywhere people are chitchatting, laughing, with neighbors, shop owners, suppliers, or accidentally passing by people. Unfortunately hardly anyone speaks English, outside the cities, so talking is difficult, but nevertheless, we try hard 😅
Impressive people and a great spirit, everywhere I have been, Nias is one of the most beautiful, rural islands I've seen so far, and the combination of one touristy spot, while the rest of the island feels kind of "untouched", is fascinating.Read more
TravelerNa, Du kommst rum, Bule!
9/19/23ReplyTranslate
Traveler🙈🤣
9/21/23Reply
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Asia 2023 Traveler
Nias Pro:WorldChampionship Qualifying🏄
September 13, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C
As I arrived on Nias, I was asked "Are you here for the contest?" No, I'm not, what kind of contest is going on here? World Surf League Championship Qualifying? Oh, well, I started learning to surf 4 weeks ago... 😅🙈
Love it, when I accidentally run into some huge local events! (Nevertheless this reminded me more on Formula 1 - or Skiing-circus, conquering a place for a week 🤷)
Seemed as if this is THE annual event, here on Nias, for opening ceremony it seemed as if literally everybody tried to attend in there best Sunday dresses, so it was finally like a huge celebration, all around surfing.
Lot of Surf-Pros in the water, to watch😲, some intermediate surfers, annoyed by all the pros stealing their waves 😅, and many many busy locals, working and preparing for the big event.
And finally, no good surfing waves from Tuesday to Thursday 🙈
But luckily for me one of the Surfspots for beginners had some nice little waves, so at least I was able to practice some surfing 😎 My stand-ups are getting better, body balance improves, but paddling and catching the wave at the right point still is difficult 😅
Already looking for some other nice beach breaks on my further route 😬Read more
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Asia 2023 Traveler
Going to Hinako Islands
September 15, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C
After I told Ami, I met at Sri Lanka, that I'm heading to Nias, she wrote to me: "You have to go to Hinako Islands!", I took a look, and decided to follow this amazing recommendation.
So taking my scooter still was cheaper than a private driver (no public transportation available), and as locals would most likely do the same, a bike ride should be fine. Warned about bad roads and packed with all my stuff I headed to Sirombu, a small town where the ferry should leave, should be a 3 hours ride. Should 😅
As I got ahead very well, even as I took some breaks and rode smooth, I made a small detour to Moale beach, a huge beach with endless long, big wave brakes, at that day. Being the only person there and admiring the ocean's powerful waves, let me lose track of time, a little. 🙈
Nothing to worry about, but I had to go.
Passing amazing landscapes, lot of rice fields, and permanently greeting and waving people, a very nice ride, but suddenly the roads were really bad.
Learnt something: If Google Maps tells you, upcoming 20 kilometers will take 1,25 hours, some crazy roads are ahead. Huge holes, washed away streets, leaving stones, damaged concrete roads, more holes as road, haven't seen roads like this since rural areas of Cambodia.
Exhausting, but finally done, arrived at the port, got informed there is only coast guard station, Pier for my ferry is on the other side of peninsula. Parked my scooter at the coast guard (Thanks Robi! 😊) and went on the tiny little ferryboat to Hinako Islands.
Of course I was the only foreigner, some surfers just jumped on a speedboat, when I arrived at the Pier.
Sitting on the roof of the boat, together with a group of young teachers, exchanging actual teachers on the main island of Hinakos, a chilled, but wave rocking ride started. 🤩
Visiting one island after the other, unloading daily goods, construction materials or even two scooters, was fascinating to watch. Locals are already waiting on the Pier, to take their ordered goods and bring into their homes. Some carrying, some by scooters, some with huge trolleys. Lot of bags, Kartons, boxes, going around, rice, fruits, vegetables, beverages, food, ice boxes,... But also construction materials, like a ton of cement, wooden panels and boards, it was unbelievable, how many goods this small boat can carry 😲😅.
After unloading, huge bags of roasted coconut shells are weighed and loaded, before leaving and heading to the next island.
So, finally, after around 5 hours of round trip at Hinako Islands, we arrived at Pulau Asu, a beautiful tiny paradise in the Indian ocean.🥰Read more
TravelerSehr schöne Schilderungen, mein Lieber!
9/21/23ReplyTranslate
Traveler😊
9/21/23Reply
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Asia 2023 Traveler
Paradise Pulau Asu - Hinako Islands
September 18, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C
Tiny island Asu is a gem, a hidden paradise, where the Indian Ocean hits Sumatra.
Arriving there by night, getting awesome food served, had an early, deep sleep and woke up, when the sun rose up at my window.
Fell in love immediately with that unbelievably beautiful island, white sand beach, crystal clear turquoise blue water, surrounded by huge palm trees, growing all over the island. 🥰
There are only around 50 people living on that island, since around 100 people left their destroyed housings on the island after 2005's earthquake. Interestingly 2004's tsunami didn't hit the island hard, as it's surrounded by deep waters, but the big earthquake, half a year later, traumatized lot of people there. As it's still visible at several points, this earthquake lifted up the whole island for around 3 meters and changed the shape of the island's shoreline massively.
At Ina Silvi Cottage, aka Mama Silvi's, I had great times, even if there was a lot of rain, my last days there.
As her husband, who passed away around half a year ago, was sort of the island's chief, now Mama Silvi is running all the important businesses here. Her daughter and some of the workers' wives are running kitchen and hospitality services, one of her sons is running the all islands connecting ferryboat I've arrived with, her son-in-law is the doctor for all of Hinako Islands and Mama Silvi is the managing center of all.
She is an amazing, fascinating, strong and smart person, caring about the whole island's community, worrying about any issue happening on the island and giving support to anybody who needs it.
Having nice talks with her was one of my best experiences here, asides from visiting the tiny village with all the welcoming, friendly people living there. But exploring the reefs with my snorkel (thank God for my new prescription goggles from Günthers Tauchertreff in Vienna! 😊), and walking around on the small paths all over the island, watching the huge waves hitting island's wide reefs was great, too!
And finally, visiting one of the two surf camps, close to the surfspot, meeting some crazy addicted surfers from all ages from all over the world, watching them riding the incredible >3-meters-waves, was so amazing to see! 😍
Due to a lot of rain during my last days there, I had an additional night, as the ferryboat wasn't able to be loaded and didn't go, for two days.
Amazing to experience island's life up- and downsides, struggles and highlights.
Finally I left the island during a beautiful sunrise, with my heart full of joy.
Hopefully I'm able to improve my surfskills, so I can come back again, one day, to ride these huge waves and visit Mama Silvi again!Read more
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Asia 2023 Traveler
Back to Teluk Dalam
September 21, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ 🌧 27 °C
Finally the rain had stopped. Whole island was already waiting for the ferry to leave, as prices for their roasted coconut shells, (waiting to be brought to coconut-oil-mill) were dropping. So after some depressing days, everybody was happy again, even if my heart cried for leaving this awesome people and island.
Even island's dogs (one of them always slept in front of my rooms door 🥰) were saying goodbye, by crying and barking, when we left the beach with a small boat to get onto the ferry.
Sea was so calm, sun was greeting between clouds, boat ride was peaceful, and I think I even saw a dolphin jumping out of the water, at the horizon.
As ferry was fully loaded (around 6000 kilogramms of mostly coconut shells, collected from all islands of Hinako Islands group, worth around 0,40€/kilo), we went directly to Nias, no roundtrip, again.
The Coast guard had parked my scooter and helmet in a garage, they were so kind and helpful! 🤗
So I went back to the south of Nias at early noon, the weather was fine, the roads were soaking and little more damaged from the heavy rainfalls, but nothing to worry.
Nearly made it without getting wet, but 40mins before arrival, some short but heavy rain catched me up.😅 After 15 mins rain became less, but didn't seem to stop, so me and my backpack got our raincoats, going on carefully.
Finally back at Salty dogs, some of my friends there had already left, but most of our Crew was still on and nice beach waves at nearby Lugundri were seen.😎
So I decided to practice some more surfing 🏄 and joining Scott onto the ferry back to Sumatra on Saturday.
Saying goodbye to our host Arif and his family was heartbreaking, but my times here are unforgettable and hopefully we can stay in touch, at least by competing in chess games, online. 😎Read more
👍🏻 Ilse [Ilse Keiper]
10/5/23ReplyTranslate
Traveler🤗
10/5/23Reply
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Seeking the sun - a 60 hours journey
Sep 23–26, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C
In the end, since I arrived in SE Asia, I've not had many sunny days. No complaints, I like the hot, tropical weather, I've already adjusted to sleeping in non-A/C-rooms, and some rain, time by time, is nice. Washing the streets, and a nice thunderstorm brings a cooling breeze and refreshment, I would be fine with a few hours of rain, a day. But on the long run, I started to dislike the cloudy weather. Only seeing the sun for 1, 2 or 3 hours a day (except of rare fully sunny days) started to bother me, my desire for more blue skies and sunny days grew steadily, over the last few weeks.
Checking the global weather for SE Asia regularly, and talking to locals, confirmed my suspicion that rainy season is coming to early, so waiting for the sun won't work out.
As you can never see everything and as plans are made to be broken, I decided to seek the sun in the south, where rainy season shouldn't start before end of October.
As I'm not known for making compromisees about reaching a set target, I wanted to go there as fast as possible (still avoiding airplanes as long as possible). It ended up with travelling non-stop for nearly 60 hours.
Taking the 12hrs night ferry from Nias back to Sumatra was a comfortable start, even if the wooden bunk beds without mattress doesn't look like.😅
Back in Sibolga in the morning, waiting 4hrs for my 18hrs-bus-trip to Pekanbaru, which is a quite big city in the center of Sumatra and known as a transport hub. After the rough minibus ride I had to Sibolga, I've chosen a nice big bus, so I hopefully could catch a few hours of sleep, despite the bad roads, bumping and shaking the bus.
Nice bus ride, seeing amazing landscapes passing by and watching daily life is such a enjoyable part of travelling.🤩
Originally I had planned to stay a night in Pekanbaru, but as there still were dark, heavy clouds everywhere and I just felt not ready for a big, loud, chaotic city, at that moment, I decided to skip visiting this city. After having a short breakfast at the bus stop, it took me 2 hours to find another big bus heading to the south: a 24hrs ride to city of Palembang.
Barely found time for a quick washing myself on the bus terminals washrooms and was sitting in another bus, again.
As always in life, good luck and bad luck are living close by each other: A row behind my seat Oscar was travelling with me, speaking enough English to fill the gaps with google translate easily, had some nice chitchatting, he was going to visit the wedding of his son in Pekanbaru and finally helped me with getting a reasonable priced ride to my accommodation, after we've arrived. On the other hand, my bus seat was broken, so I couldn't adjust my seat in any way and ended up restrained and fighting to find at least an acceptable seating position. 😅 Well, back pain, sometimes, is part of the game, here. 🙈
Nevertheless, during daytime I enjoyed the ride a lot, during the night it became hard.
Another fascinating thing on these bus rides, here, is an incredible time management: Buses making several breaks, around every 2-4 hours, meeting up with other buses for transfer passengers, giving us time to have a meal or simply a rest. This all happens without any schedules, it's just the driver, telling us like "now a short/long break", or "let's move on". Even the locals don't know, they just keep an eye on the driver, when he starts to move back to the bus. (Of course they check if everyone is back in the bus, before heading on😅). Drivers are permanently in touch with their colleagues, about meeting times, and with this basic and interactive way of organisation, most buses are quite on time. 😎
Finally I've arrived Palembang around 9 o'clock in the morning, exactly 60hours after I've entered the ferry on Nias island. Worn out, short of sleep, not only my back is hurting... Lack of fitness now takes it's toll, too. More self-care has to get a higher priority, now.
Saying goodbye to my travel mate Oscar from Aceh, of course I was invited to visit him, hopefully I can do it on my way back home. 🤩
Heading to my accommodation, craving for a proper bed and a quiet room to rest.
But ready for new adventures in one of Sumatra's biggest cities! 🤩Read more
Traveler Well, video cutting in my smartphone didn't work out too good... 😅🙈
10/7/23Reply
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Palembang - City adventures
Sep 25–28, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ☁️ 34 °C
After my long travel I decided visiting a big city would be a nice opportunity for having a break, before heading on to the south. Extending my 30-day Visa could be done here, too. 😎
Finding my best price-value for accommodation in Sumatra, for now (10€ for two nights) in a quite clean private room, brought me some guests into my clothing. 🙈 No, no bed-bugs, but some ants were beginning to build a colony in my small packing cube 😱 As I've found them just before departure, no time for a laundry anymore, getting some ant poison and putting everything in plastic bags, made it, for now. Luckily no needed clothing was affected. 😅
So after getting some rest from my long trip, I went to immigration office, in the south of the city. My first time riding on bike taxis in a big city in Sumatra was nice, adrenaline kicked well, sometimes 😬
After struggling a little bit with the Indonesian bureaucracy, the very helpful officer there found me a guy, who would "guarantee" for me, during my extended stay. I've only seen this guy for 5 seconds, he didn't want to take any money from me, just telling me, I hopefully enjoy my trip. 😅🥰
Next obstacle was, there was a national holiday on Thursday and processing my visa until Wednesday would very likely not work. After some begging from my side, I was told to come again the next day, close to office's closing time, perhaps it could work out. And bringing some food, then, would be nice. 😲🙄🤔😅😂🤣😂
Ok, grabbing some nice cakes from a fancy bakery on my way, tomorrow, was on my to-do list. 😬
But the next obstacle was already waiting literally around the corner: ATM outside the immigration office decided to have an error and take my credit card. 😱
All in all I can deal with obstacles, but that was kind of a worst-case scenarios, as using my spare card would cost me huge amounts of fees and getting a new card from home would take ages.
Furthermore I found out that my Indonesia tourist SIM card had no balance for calls left.🙈
Not being able to call ATM's bank Hotline, only little amount of local cash left, felt not good. 😑
But, as usual, some amazing locals were around: some guys from immigration office's security services did amazing efforts to help me!
So, to cut a long story short:
I was invited to some martabak, while waiting for the bank's calling back. When it was clear, there's no solution on the same day, they told me exactly to which bank office to go the next morning and gave me a free lift back to my hotel. 🥰
Next day at the bank's office, many more extremely helpful people taking care, telling me they'll call me soon. Half an hour later my friends from the immigration office called me to tell me my card is on the way to the bank office, another half hour later I got it back 🤩😅
Finally, I think, it won't be possible to get back your card within less than 24hrs in Europe 🤔
So got some cash for the bakery, taking fancy cakes to the immigration officers, got my Visa. 😎
Getting some more cakes, for the amazing guys from the immigration office's security services. 😅
Made some new friends, had some challenging, interesting, but finally nice experiences. Some time for shopping in Palembang was still left, before my leave, further on to the south. 😎Read more
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Lampung - Judi & Rafael
September 28, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ☀️ 34 °C
So when entering the nice minibus from Pelambang to Lampung, heading on to Sumatra's south, I wasn't sure yet, if I'd go straight to Java, Jakarta, or make a detour to Krui.
Krui was recommended to me from several travellers and locals as a beautiful beach and surfspot. As I was looking for some sunny weather and some more relaxing, after the long journey, I spontaneously decided to go to Krui, while the bus was entering Lampung city.
During the bus ride I got in touch with Judi, a very friendly guy, living on Pulau Bangka and travelling to his father's home at Lampung, only for a 2-day-trip. As soon as I told him, that I wanted to go to Krui, he said there's a bus around nine o'clock and he'll help me to arrange everything. And for waiting for the bus, I should go with him to his home and have dinner, before. His friend was accompanying him for buying a car in Lampung and told me it's fine. So as all attempts to refuse this offer were unsuccessful, I accepted, so finally his 80 yrs old father Rafael picked us up at the bus terminal and we all together went to several travel companies to find the right bus for me, and after that was solved we had a nice dinner at a restaurant.🙂🤤
Afterwards we went to a garage to inspect the car to buy, successfully picked up the car and ended up at Rafael's home. As Rafael's wife had passed away already her planted fruit-trees at their tiny home were her heritage we admired. Furthermore one of his granddaughters was winning a lot of modelling contests, so the home was packed with trophies, Rafael's wife's and family's pictures and souvenirs from Rafael's uncountable trips to Asia and even some overseas countries.
Had some tea and nice talkings, until my shared minibus arrived for picking me up to Krui.
Will never forget that amazing hospitality and the nice time we've spent together.Read more
Happy birthday 🎈🎉 🍀 wish you Ilse [Ilse Keiper]
10/14/23Reply
TravelerDankeschön! ❤️🤗 Viele liebe Grüße aus Indonesien! 🙂
10/14/23ReplyTranslate
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Krui, southwest Sumatra
Sep 29–Oct 2, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C
Krui was recommended to me several times as a nice surfspot, being more traditional and natural and less crowded, than many others. Can confirm all of that. 😎
I wasn't able to catch some waves, as the beginner spot only had nice waves on my day of arrival, when I was too tired to jump into the waves. 😅 Nevertheless I enjoyed some nice quite days, using my hammock a lot and had a day of exploring the surroundings by scooter, too.
Weather was amazing, and as there was already off-season not many people around, only met a few travellers, mostly surfers, and some local tourists.
Krui's coastline is amazing, mostly natural and rural, aside from the well developed and unusually clean city beach, which was not too busy and had uncountable wave breaks, nice for swimming, but surfspots bit out, still close to the beach. The surfspots for beginners-intermediates had nice waves, but I'm still not feeling ready for reef breaks, as you can get serious cuts or injuries, if your not knowing what you're doing. Watching and enjoying the nice shoreline filled my days very nicely, too. As beginner-waves were still not coming, I made a day trip with a scooter to explore pure beauty of nature, empty, natural beaches and rocky coasts, admiring nature's beauty and ocean's powers. Following some interesting street signs without knowing where they lead to, I ended up at a hidden bat cave - unfortunately my headlight was in my backpack, so only saw dozens of bats going in and out, hearing their screamings and smelling their leftovers. 😅 A nice hidden stairway, nearly down to sealevel, brought me there, way back was a short but exhausting climb, Sumatra's heat and humidity are killing, if you're hiking. 🥵
Back at my scooter, needing a rest, I got in touch with the cave-keeper, invited me to drink some "Lampung coffe" with them. Turned out, it was a special kind of tea with loads of sugar... 😅. While 3 of his sons were actually working on construction of a tiny little mosque on the tip of the hill, his 4th son sat with his grandson and him next to the site, supporting and supervising the work. Had some nice talks (thanks to Google translate, again 😅), learned that gaining the funds for the tiny mosque took around 3 years, while construction, all by themselves, took around one year. After saying goodbye to three generations of cave-keepers I went back to Krui city in the sunset in one of the most beautiful, untouched landscapes, I've seen for now. 🥰
All in all, nice relaxing days, a lot of great street food, meeting some more amazingly friendly people, learning some more Indonesian words, I was fine to leave back to Lampung, heading to Java, finally. 😊Read more
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Asia 2023 Traveler
Back to Lampung and a growing plan 😎
Oct 2–3, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C
My time on Sumatra comes to an end, slowly but steadily.
So as I started to think about some places to see on Java, and seeing volcanoes is a childhood dream of mine, I soon stumbled upon Krakatoa (Krakatau) volcano.
Hard to find a guided tour, or even valid information online, how to get there, let's see, if I can figure out something 😬😉
So first I went back to Lampung by bus, not really many other options, here. So an enjoyable bus ride through Sumatra's mountains, amazing views, great weather, and worth doing as a day trip, instead of going by night. Decided to give Lampung a day of sightseeing before heading on, still not sure, where to go next.
Not too much to see, there, still fascinating to visit a mid-sized city at Sumatra, not touristy but exploring Indonesian daily life is still fun, always and again.
You can find a lot of nice street- or public art paintings everywhere here, but in Lampung even huge highway bridges were painted colorful and nice 🤩.
Meeting up again with Rafael, Judi's father, for a breakfast at Starbucks (🙈) was very nice, he is such a fascinating and wise person! Please stay healthy and all the best! 🤗
But travel decisions have to be made:
Should I book a very expensive and exhausting day-trip to Krakatoa from Java, or should I simply try my luck here on Sumatra? You know the answer already 😅😉
With very spare and obviously outdated information, I took a cheap minibus to Kalianda, a small city at the south coast close to Krakatoa, expecting to ask a lot of people, where I've to go for my desired volcano tour.
Kalianda has an amazing nice beach you cannot swim at, due to heavy currents here, which seems to be an issue at many beaches here, between Sumatra and Java.
Several new tsunami warning signs already indicated some recent issues here, nevertheless the beach was obviously prepared for many local tourists and had a very good infrastructure.
Had a nice milkshake (unfortunately no fruit juice available 😅🙈) at the beach, but soon headed on to Canti, a village 12km more south, as people sent me there for my desired tour. Still a bit concerned, as normally people tell you here something like "go to this shop/travel agency" or directly bring you there, so let's see, how this will work out.
At least the bike-taxi-guy was bringing me to a reasonable priced accommodation, as booking platforms only had luxury hotels on their lists, here.
More to come... 😬Read more
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Asia 2023 Traveler
Krakatoa - an active volcano 🌋
Oct 4–5, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ 🌬 28 °C
When I was 5 or 6 years old, I got the "Volcanoes" book from the famous german "Was ist was" childbook series. Since that day I was dreaming of seeing this unbelievable powers of our amazing planet for real.
Finally this day that dream came true.
Arriving at the village Canti, brought to more or less the only hotel, I walked straight to the pier, discovering the harbor was not in use anymore, only two fishing boats on the beach. No ferry, as some (already known as unreliable) information online were saying. As usual here, the best way is to talk to locals, but the woman running the hotel was not speaking any english and a little bit shy, so I walked to the pier and asked around there. Buying some drinking water in the tiny shop, brought me to Suridaya, a local man who told me he could bring me there and be my guide. He barely spoke English, so our conversation mostly went on with hands, feet and google translate 😅
For fixing the tour, he wanted to visit me at my hotel later, finally he found me an hour later at the only restaurant, there, accompanied by Ham, a fisherman owning one of the only two boats here.
After some bargaining about the price, we agreed to start the tour at 5am.
Dino, one of Suridaya's sons, joined the tour, he spoke a little bit of English, so some basic conversations possible, but translator was still in heavy use.
Cloudy morning, but sun brushed sky clear very soon and burned down on our tiny boat.
Calm sea, only usual currents were sometimes pushing on the boat, perfect day for an amazing trip.
Passing by Sebuku and Sebesi islands (we visited on our way back, another footprint coming for that), some beautiful, natural islands with few people living on.
A quite long ride, but after around 1,5 hrs Krakatoa came at sight. 😲
Still half an hour to reach, but approaching that permanently smoking volcano and seeing it growing on the horizon was already awesome.
Cannot describe my feelings, while going around the active crater, lying in the middle of the old crater islands. Permanently volcano's rumbling to hear, some really intense Salpeter smelling in the air, at some points, and seeing these rocks of cold Lava, volcanic stones, and huge amounts of ashes, being washed away by rain and sea, witnesses of some brutal natural forces earlier, made me speechless and feeling humbled.
We are only guests on this planet.Read more
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Asia 2023 Traveler
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Goodbye Krakatoa, visiting neighborhood
October 5, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C
I could have gone another round around the volcano, not able to stop watching at it's fascinating shaped coastline and permanent activities, but sun was burning and after 4 hours on the boat we all got hungry.
For our early lunch, we picked little Krakatoa, the island next to the active crater, landing on its black beach.
Amazing view onto the volcano, great food, some coffee and wandering around, here, after lunch. Only building is the volcano observation office, but the officer seems to be fishing, right now.
After saying goodbye to Krakatoa, we went back, but two more stops on the only populated islands here, Sebesi and Sebuku, were on our list.
Sebesi had a nice village, of course everyone knows everybody, so a lot of greeting local people, having some refreshing iced tea, after the long ride in the burning sun, was great. 🥵😎
So we visited a huge "haunted tree", legend telling that everyone who tried to cut off a limb or cut the tree, was haunted by ghosts for the rest of his life.
But as we wanted to visit Suridaya's home island, Pulau Sebuku, we left quite soon.
Sebuku, or at least the part we landed, was like a paradise beach at a protected bay, so water was calm and warm.
Amazing to see, how Suridaya's son went up the palm tree to cut some coconuts for a snack, while his wife gave us some coffee and some fresh bananas, their 3yrs old daughter being extremely shy, seeing a "bule" for real first time.
I was shown the traditional palm tree production, which is their main income source, cooking sugar out of sugar-palm leafs nearly 24/7.
After some relaxing, and showing me their huge grounds along the beach, where they wanted to build a guesthouse for accommodating tourist, we finally left back to Sumatra.
Sun still burning, all of us hiding under clothes, sweating a lot, but happy to have a packed day, a great time together, enjoying nature's beauty and gifts, and sharing amazing experiences and impressions.
Never will forget that awesome day. 🥰Read more
Aw me and family [Dino]
2/4/25Reply
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Asia 2023 Traveler
From Sumatra to Java - Jakarta
Oct 5–6, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ 🌙 27 °C
Quite tired, but too boisterous to rest, I went directly on to Bukauheni, the most important connection harbor to Java.
Nobody was able to tell me what time the ferries to Java are leaving.🤷 I found out soon why: because there's always a ferry.😅 Going during daytime every 30 minutes, in the evening there's still a huge ferry every hour, missed one for a few minutes, but boarding for the next one started 20 minutes later.
Saying goodbye to Sumatra, thanking for the great times the island and it's inhabitants spent with me, grateful for the amazing welcoming and kindness of the people and hoping for coming back, one day.
During the boat trip I met Andi, a businessman from Borneo, travelling to Jakarta for his business, and had some nice talking, so time flew by. Will meet him again in Jakarta, for sure.
Merak harbor was still very busy at midnight, could have gotten a bus to Jakarta easily, but finally lack of sleep and the long boat ride, the amazing but exhausting day, kicked in, so I got a room for the night.
Not much to say about the next day, slept long, caught a cool bus with a smoking area in its back. 😂🙈
Got some first impressions of the huge city of Jakarta and after one month on Sumatra, the city life and the very modern city was a little bit overwhelming. 😅
Just strolled around in my hostel's district and tried to get some rest from my exhausting last days.
I think I could like it, here, but some more exploring is needed. 🤩😉Read more
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Asia 2023 Traveler
Jakarta - photodump
Oct 7–9, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C
Still not sure what to write about Jakarta, but in my opinion, it's bad image is outdated, probably comes from some years ago.
I like it, still it has all the downsides of a big city in southeast Asia, especially heavy traffic and polluted air, but it has some things to offer!
More to come soon, here some first impressions... 😅Read more
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Asia 2023 Traveler
Exploring Jakarta 😍
Oct 9–14, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C
Jakarta is definitely worth seeing, I'm a little bit sad I didn't find more time to explore the tiny little alleys, rarely big enough for a scooter. You can find everything there, all sorts of shops, warungs (the typical tiny little restaurants with only one, two or three tables), food stalls, a lot of life is going on there.
Of course, I did some sightseeing, the boat ride at the old harbor was one of the highlights, the 8th biggest mosque of the world, fitting 200.000 people in it, was also very impressive. The "tiny little" catholic cathedral on the opposite of the street gave a very symbolic view.
It's awesome to see, how much effort Indonesian people put into growing plants, extending their gardens onto the streets, trying to put something green into their city environment.
I can not put in pictures the amazing kindness and the friendly approach of Indonesian people in general. Obviously in a big city like Jakarta, more people are only looking curious and hesitate to approach me directly, but even here it happened to me, that I got a free lift by a traffic policeman, after he saw me looking on the map, very confused, for a while, looking for a certain shop. And as soon as I take initiative to talk to people, looking curious but hesitating, they warm up immediately and I had some heartwarming experiences and, met only people trying to help to find my way or just chitchatting nicely.
That's very special for a metropolitan city, in my experience, and one of the most important reasons, why I think Jakarta is worth a visit with an open mind and an open heart. 🥰Read more
Great pictures and videos 👍🏻🤩 [Ilse Keiper]
10/25/23Reply
Traveler😊🤗
10/25/23Reply
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Asia 2023 Traveler
Buying a bike in Jakarta 🛵💨
October 11, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C
After I wasn't able to take the new highspeed train (it's name really is "Whoosh"! 😅), I spontaneously decided to go further east by motorbike. At least Java has good, well kept roads, I've seen, and the freedom of going around by bike is awesome. 🤩
Many travellers say it's common and easy to do it in Vietnam, buy a bike in the north, sell it in the south. So why shouldn't it be possible in Indonesia? 🤔
After going to some bike shops, I realized it's not that easy and I have to be careful, as prices seemed to be quite high.
Luckily I told Andi (the businessman from Kalimantan I've met in the ferry to Java) what I'm planning. His answer was: "Hey, Im your man, my hobby is buying and selling used cars!" 😅
Took him 5 minutes to figure out that there's a bike auction tomorrow, we'll find a bike for a good price, there. 😎
Unbelievable amount of bikes (>730 motorbikes if all types) to see. Took me 3hrs to spot out 8 potential candidates, including my maximum prices, so there will be a small profit (or at least no loss), when selling it on Bali (or somewhere else).
As soon as I met one of the bike dealers, I've visited the day before, at the auction, I was sure that this is the right place to buy a bike. 😬
Bidding was funny, first two bikes went away faster as I was able to react. 😅🙈
Third of my candidates went to a way too high price after 30seconds, but a nice, quite new, Yamaha Gear scooter was my chance. Slow bidding, not many people interested, so after only a few biddings, it was mine! 🥳😎
Paperwork took some time, Andi and I had to walk to a bank office nearby. I took 12 million cash from the ATM (took me 10 withdrawals, 50.000 notes, unfortunately forgot to take a pic of that huge pile of money 🙈), he did the money transfer to the auction's office, and I got my bike and the key. 😬
Felt a little bit like the moment I bought my first vehicle in Austria, without understanding anything of the language... 😅🤣
Going to a helmet shop with Andi first and then saying goodbye to him, thanking him for the huge efforts he took to help me!
Next stop at a Yamaha garage, getting some fresh oil for my bike's engine and, of course, getting to a tuning shop, getting a smartphone-mount for it, so everything was set up properly. 😬
My first own ride on a bike on Jakarta's confusing streets with it's crazy traffic was a little bit scary, but got used to it soon. 😎🛵💨
Our traffic would improve massively, if we would stick to these traffic habits in Austria! 🤗
Looking forward to exploring Indonesia by bike, from now on! 🤩Read more
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Asia 2023 Traveler
Birthday party and a gift to myself 🎊
Oct 14–16, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C
Decided to celebrate my birthday the evening before, as I knew I would like to have a relaxing day after the celebration and wanted to head on to the east. 😅
So some of my travel mates and I went for some nice streetfood and to a crazy bar in Jakarta.
Got the first time a birthday song from the stage (no, I wasn't embarrassed at all 🙈), and had a great night, listening to a great Indonesian 80s/90s-coverband and some nice drinks. Not much more to say... 😬😎🥳
So after a relaxed birthday morning, I went to a barbershop, getg my growing beard trimmed and hairs under control.
Looking for a tailor, repairing my hat and my trousers brought me again to some beautiful places in Jakarta, but finally I left Jakarta after 8 nights.
Made myself a nice birthday gift and found a very luxurious, still affordable, hotel on my way to Bandung, to have another relaxing night and a great start in the day, due to an awesome breakfast buffet. 🤤
Very nice Indonesian birthday 🥳😎Read more
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Asia 2023 Traveler
My first onshore vulcano 🌋 - to Bandung
Oct 16–17, 2023 in Indonesia
As Tangkuban Parahu was more or less in my route to Bandung, it was a perfect sightseeing stop for my ride.
As the ride out of Jakarta mostly was going through urban areas, I was already looking forward to riding through some rural, mountainous areas. Riding curvy, steep roads is the real fun, about riding any motorbike. 😍
As expected the ride was amazing, streets were quite okay, had an awesome rural bike ride.
Never know, what to say about visiting natural sights, as impressions can't be put into proper words. Witnessing these unbelievable powers, creating these unreal landscapes, where living nature is fighting against Earth's forces, will keep me fascinated for my entire life, obviously.
Probably this place is more crowded at the forenoon, as most tourist tours are starting early in the morning to avoid the hot times at noon. So except for a few local tourists and even more sellers (trying hard😅), guides (even harder 🙈) and service staff (so friendly and helpful), I had the place for my own. On the hike to the smaller Domas crater, I didn't see even one other person.😎
The ride further on to Bandung went quite smoothly, some small and broken roads took speed down a lot, but the beautiful landscapes paid everything off. 😍 And traffic was surprisingly easy, so all in all a perfect day for my first real Bike Tour on my own on Java. 😊Read more
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Asia 2023 Traveler
Bandung - white Crater
Oct 19–21, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C
As I was still suffering from a sore throat from Jakarta's A/C, I needed some rest for recovery in Bandung.
But finally it was time to visit the other volcano at Bandung.
Went there with two other travelers by scooter, had a nice ride and some fun with some guys and some kids at a random shop on the way, we've chosen for rest place.
Unfortunately we were not able to go up to the crater on our own scooters, but the 4km bus ride was a nice experience, too. 😎
White crater has less activities, so people can walk directly into it, it also is very well developed for tourists and some, mostly local, tourists were around.
As we're still in dry season, here, there was not too much water in the crater, so the sulfate soaked grounds of the crater was very good visible.
Walking up to the view point was a nice little hike, view was amazing and Jasper, Inge and me had a lot of fun. 😊
While having a quick dinner at the base of the volcano two cute girls made a lot of fun with us, enjoying the attention. As both of them were deaf-mute it was amazing to see, how they communicated with each other in sign language and trying it with us, too. Showed again, that there's always a way to communicate, if you're willing and if you try hard.
Riding back to the hostel during darkness was another experience, on these roads and with some crazy driving styles from locals.😅Read more
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Asia 2023 Traveler
To south coast - perfect bike ride 🥰
October 21, 2023 in Indonesia ⋅ ☁️ 32 °C
Finally my cold was gone, so let's go back to the ocean, ride some waves and explore Java!
I really should do more proper research, before starting my rides, can't always be that lucky as I was today: Completely accidentally ran into the Cirahong Dubbeldekker Spoorbrug, a double-decker bridge for trains and bikes (in earlier times even cars), built by the Dutch in 1893.
As sometimes here, there's a little toll to pay to the guy who's managing the one-way traffic.
Great place to see, some businesses established around the bridge, a small shop, some Warungs (little restaurants) and a cafe. Perfect break, watching people passing by, stopping by eating, drinking coffee and taking pictures, even one couple seemed to have a wedding-photoshooting there.
The ongoing road was amazing, going through hills, mountains, and tiny villages. Of course some parts of the road were broken and hard to ride, but most of the track was like a biker's dream road, going up and down, more or less sharp curves, few serpentines, going through amazing landscapes and enjoying beautiful views. 🤩Read more
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