Bali in December, Pt.2

After spending the first few days in the hotel in Sanur we did a four day round trip through the island. The round trip was already booked from Germany so we did not have to care about anything - guide, driver, accommodation, ... everything was organized. Normally this round trip is organized for at least 8 people but since it was low season we were the only two who wanted to do it. Since everything was already booked and payed they made an exception and did the tour anyway - with a guide and a driver for just the two of us. You can't have it any better!

The first two days we enjoyed the tour in a VW "bucket car" (Kübelwagen). The feeling was really unique. When the weather was nice (most of the time it actually was) we could ride with open roof and without windows - so we felt really close to the island and the people, much better than looking through a glass pane. Our driver knew all the small roads and villages, so we could see parts of the island that the usual tourists don't see: small villages, remote rice fields, many friendly and cheering people and a lot of jungle.

On the first day we made it from the south of the island to roughly the middle West of the island. There were a lot of small hills between small valleys with small creeks. This is a perfect area for rice terraces and we saw plenty of them. The green of the rice terraces is absolutely incredible - its acutally greener then green, literally as green as green can be. :-) But it is kind of hard to caputure it with a camera - a monitor will probably not be able to display that colour anyway. We made a lot of stops (we could of cours stop whenever we wanted to) and two little hikes/walks in the rice fields and a bit through the jungle. We saw all kinds of tropical fruits (eg. a Jack Fruit, the biggest fruit in the world; you can see it in the picture) - many of them I didn't even know before. We made a short stop at a brick yard as well - the swastika is by the way a religious symbol in Hinduism. Finally having arrived in our nice accommodation we experimented a bit with flash and tripod...

On the second day we made our way up north all the way to Lovina. In this part Bali is very mountainous and we could see some high volcanoes with steep slopes. The roads and the villages got smaller - unfortunately the weather was not optimal. But some of the views were still breathtaking. We could see the traditional way of ploughing the rice fields, more friendly Balinese people and a lot of smaller and bigger temples. Having arrived in Lovina we felt like coming back from nature and wilderness to civilization and tourism. We stayed in a nice bungalow, but it was not as cozy and unique as the last place. Just before sun set we had a bath in the sea... where we lost our key on the beach... Fortunately we could get a spare key at the reception and we found the key in the next morning.

For the next day we booked dolphin watching in the early morning. We had to get up really early to start the trip in the traditional boat before sunrise. Unfortunately in reality it was not as calm and quiet as it seems in the two pictures. It was rather dolphin chasing than dolphin watching. There were at least 30 boats on the sea and whenever somebody spotted a group of the poor dolphins all the boats would race there at full throttle. I think there are better places if you really want to see dolphins... At least we got a really great breakfast when we came back to our guest house.
From that day on we were travelling in a mini bus - it is more convenient for longer distances but the atmosphere is not as nice as in the small VW. At first we went East along the coast, where we stopped at a nice temple. Then we turned South and made our way up in the mountains again. That day the weather was quite cloudy and it rained several times - so we did not have the best view for the Gunung Agung, the highest volcano on Bali.
The accommodation for the night was a very small place in a tiny village. I believe it was the only guest house in the village and we were the only guests there. So there was actually nothing to do after our dinner. We went for a short walk in the village anyway. The streets were quite dark and my father was a bit scared about some youngsters lurking around there - but I assured him that Bali was completely safe. When we finally came back to our place the gate was locked, apparently our host though that we already went to sleep. We were standing a bit helpless in front of the gate when one of the youngsters approached us. He was actually asking if he could help us. We explained him our situation and the young guy would just jump over the wall of the guest house and tell our host to open the gate. I guess we would have managed that by ourselves as well but this perfectly shows how courteous and helpful the Balinese are.

On the last day we made our way back along the coast to our hotel in Sanur, but not before doing some proper river rafting. The rafting was really great. Again we had the raft for us alone, with a guide/instructor of course. Once we found out how to steer and paddle optimally we were overtaking all the other boats. In total it was a 14 km trip which took roughly two hours. In the end our arm felt actually a bit soar...
The last stops were in some small wood and stone carving shops. The area around Ubud is famous for its handicrafts. All along the road you could see shops with carvings, pictures, baskets, pottery and all those things. We bought two nice wood carvings as souvenirs.

The last picture is a portrait of our superb guide Mariarta. He was with us for the for days and he was really great. He could tell us a lot about the Balinese culture and lifestyle. Apart from that I think he knew every single tropical plant or fruit. Especially great were the legends and stories about the ancient Bali he told us from time to time. He made this round trip a unique and unforgettable experience!

Happy (Chinese) New Year

Today is the first day of the lunar year, that means that it is the first day in the Chinese calendar. Singapore being mainly Chinese has a lot of celebrations going on around new year of course. Thats why I was staying in Singapore for this weekend rather then going to some place abroad.

Saturday we have been to China Town and were sneaking around the the small lanes with hundreds of little stalls. They were selling all kinds of traditional new year gifts, where sweets, biscuits and certain fruits are prevailing. The streets were extremely crowded. I have never seen so many people in China Town (its quite crowed on normal days as well). We have been there as a group of five people (3 exchanges and 2 Singaporeans) and it was really difficult to stick together. It was very nice to try all the different things - you could get free samples almost everywhere. After maybe two hours of tasting the sweets, all the sticky stuff was forming a big clot in my stomach. :-) We concluded the evening with a drink on the roof terrace of the Screening Room.

Yesterday we have been again to China Town to see the actual celebrations and the count down to the new year. This time the group was much bigger (maybe 30 people). It was almost impossible not loosing one another. After dinner and walking a bit around in China Town we eventually split up and went on in smaller groups. I went with some guys to Marina Bay where supposedly some fireworks should be launched. We managed to get there just few minutes before midnight and saw the big show... well it was around 30 seconds of firecrackers. I somehow expected a bit more. But there should be some shows on the floating platform throughout the next days - probably I will come back to see some of them.

On our way back to campus we met the other group again - Singapore is small... :-D

Bali in December, Pt.1

Finally I managed to look through the Bali pictures and pick the best of them to put them on my blog. In total I have been 12 days on Bali together with my father. Sounds like a long time for a small island? - Your are wrong! Bali is so diverse and there is so much to see. We could just get a rough overview of maybe half the island in that time. We both decided to come back some time anyway. Bali is absolutely awesome!
The nature: Volcanoes, rain forest, coral reefs, rivers, lakes, rice fields and so on...
The people: Always smiling at you, children even cheering, very courteous ... one of the friendliest places I have ever been.
The culture: Thousands (not exaggerated) of temples of all kinds, interesting stories and legends and a lot of handicrafts!

The first five days we stayed in the Bali Hyatt in Sanur. Pretty decent hotel with everything you need and even more. The area there is less crowed and much more quiet than Kuta - definitely preferable for me. At first we did some day trips to get to know the area a bit. The first one was snorkeling trip to Nusa Lembongan. It was a pretty amazing place. The first snorkeling spot was called Manta Bay and you could actually see 2m big manta rays swimming gracefully just below you in the sea. Later we went to a coral reef with a lot of colorful fish. We were feeding them with some bread, like that we were sometimes surrounded by a whole swarm of fish. We met a German guy with an underwater camera there as well - I hope I can show you some underwater pictures soon. There were two Japanese students with us on the boat as well - just if you wonder who those two pretty girls besides me are... ;-) Unfortunately I haven't met them another time.

The next trip was to Kuta, the tourism and party center of Bali. Probably you can have fun there in the evening and party in the clubs there. But walking around in the streets there we felt rather like in Spain or on Mallorca - almost only tourist and very few locals. At first we tried to relax a bit on the beach. But the merchants who try to sell you all that cheap crap are like a pest there. As soon as you stop walking you are surrounded by a whole bunch of them. Eventually we fled and and took a walk through the town. I think the whole place is one big market - in every house you can buy souvenirs and other stuff. Unfortunately the traffic is really annoying. Even though it was low season there was one big traffic jam in Kuta - getting in and out by car requires a lot of patience. We concluded the day watching the famous sunset in Kuta. I have seen more impressive sunsets - but the weather was not optimal. My overall judgment is: If you don't go to Kuta you won't miss much - there are a lot nicer places on Bali.

Our next trip was maybe the most exhausting one but it was definitely among the most amazing ones as well: An early morning hike on the Mount Batur. Early morning means getting up at 2am, starting the hike at around 4am and being on top of the volcano at 6.30am - just before the sunrise. The hike was - despite not being very long - quite challenging. In the beginning it was really pitch black. We had some small torchlights but you couldn't really see where you placed your steps. The ground was a bit rough as well - loose stones and gravel - so we were rather stumbling up the mountain. But as soon as we saw the view from the top we know that it was worth it. Especially just before sunrise the sky changed its color every few seconds, from dark blue to red to orange to purple to yellow (not sure about the order but the colors were there). Just after sunrise a lot of monkeys suddenly appeared and ran all over the place. They made some nice models for our pictures.

After climbing down Mt. Batur we had a short stop in the Monkey Forest close to Ubud. This place has some crazy monkeys! You can buy bananas at the entrance and feed them - but beware, as soon as they realize that you have bananas they will jump on you and try to get the food. Hiding food in a bag is a bad idea - they will smell it and won't leave you until they are convinced that there is no food left. Apart from that they are quite peaceful. If you don't threat them they wont harm you. Actually it is a lot of fun playing with the monkeys.

Sightseeing in Singapore

As I already wrote, my father visited me here in Singapore in the beginning of December. To be able to accomplish our ambitious sightseeing program I was staying with him for 3 nights in a hotel down town. So we had in total a bit more than two days (being on our feet from 8am to 12 midnight) - below you can see which places we managed to visit. This time I have some really gorgeous pictures for you because my father had his Nikon D70 with him - including some nice lenses.



The first evening we've been around Marina Bay and Singapore river. We walked around quite a bit and we started sweating even at night wearing shorts and T-Shirt. Especially my father was overwhelmed by the Singaporean climate... In the pictures you can see (from top left to bottom right): The skyline of the business district with the Fullerton Hotel in the foreground - the Singapore Flyer (which had to be evacuated recently because of a technical failure) - Marina Bay area with Esplanade (Opera), floating platform and again the Singapore Flyer - the Merlion (the landmark of Singapore) in front of the skyline.

In the next morning we took the MRT all the way East to Jurong to visit the Jurong Bird Park. Having spent more then four month in this area I have never managed to visit this park before. So it was a good opportunity to go there together. The park was really amazing! We even got in for free, because some very friendly Singaporeans hat some spare free tickets. We could see a lot of birds we both haven't seen in our life yet. The bird shows were really great: There were really big vultures and eagles flying just centimeters above your had, a bird which could sing in English, Malay and Chinese and parrots playing basket ball to name just a few highlights. Since you could get really close to the birds we could try out the newly acquired 70mm macro lens and could take some great pictures.

In the evening we have first been to the New Asia Bar (the skybar in 82nd floor of the Swissôtel). You definitely have an awesome view on the city up there. We had some cocktails and enjoyed the sunset over the city. In the first picture you can see the bunch of big cargo ships that are always floating somewhere in the Strait of Singapore. The next pictures are the business district respectively Clarke Quay by night. After having had dinner in the food street of China Town we concluded the evening on the roof of the Screening Room (a very nice bar in Club Street, China Town).

On the second day we visited the famous Singapore Zoo. The zoo is situated on a big peninsula within a big lake rather in the center of the Singaporean island. The area is quite big and we had to walk a lot again to see everything. A very interesting thing about the layout of the zoo is that the animals are mostly kept in their enclosures by natural barriers (eg. a water trench). So most of the times you can't see any apparent barriers like fences or windows. Other quite unique sights were the elephant show (the showed how elephants are actually used for moving around big logs), the comodo dragons, white tigers and really big bats. Even though December is supposed to be rainy season here we were quite lucky about the weather. It just started raining when we were on the way back to the city center.

Because the rain was quite stubborn and lasted for more than just a short shower we concluded our Singapore sightseeing program with a Singapore Sling in the famous Long Bar in the Raffles Hotel. The whole program was quite exhausting but I think we really saw as much as possible in those two days.

Back again - Happy New Year

Having spent most of December traveling (except for the short stopover) I'm finally back in Singapore. Traveling Thailand and Cambodia was a great experience. I've seen a lot of temples and other sights - of some I've never heard before and others I just knew from TV or hearsay. However two and half weeks are just enough to get a glimpse on those countries. I hope I will soon be able to put up some more details and of course pictures.

After coming back I unwrapped the Christmas presents my father brought when he visited me. That was the first moment I was a bit in a Christmas mood - a bit late though. But I put the Christmas decoration and the Christmas cards anyway. I this weather I doesn't really make a difference... Thank you for the presents and wishes! I hope you all had a Merry and peaceful Christmas! Spending Christmas for the first time without my family felt a bit odd, but we enjoyed ourselves anyway.

Now the new semester has already started. I have to sort out the approval of my courses, get finally started with my thesis and get to know the new exchange students... there is a lot to do!

So far for the short update. I wish you all a Happy New Year 2009 and I promise to put up some pictures soon!