Over the hills, under the moon - and off the beaten path

  It was really just one photo that started this whole part of our journey When we began making our travel plans this  January,  we dreamt of going two or three months to Arizona and New Mexico, to experience the flat mesas, the greasy diners, and the desert highways stretching endlessly towards the horizon. But one day, just by chance,  we spotted a photo of a palm-fringed, gleaming white sand beach. The huge waves hitting the beach were spotted with surfers riding the crests. It looked like a dreamlike Bounty beach. We simply had to go there. We found out, that the beach was called Itacare and it was located in the Brazilian state of Bahia. We looked it up, and as the nearest international airport would be Salvador, Salvador was going to be our starting point. And as an extra prize: The time of our arrival corresponded exactly with the last days of the famous Salvador Carnaval. No hotel available At this late point,  the masses of peopl...

  From Nusa Penida, we went back to Bali, and now we're again island hopping.  This time we're definitely not explorers.  Our next stay, Gili Islands -  three small islands just northeast of Bali - are on the beaten track of the tourist masses, but, as we were told, they are absolutely worth a visit  The small ferry boat from Bali made a stop first at Lombok, then at Gili Trawangan, and from there, we should find a local boat to get to our chosen island, Gili Meno.    No cars on the Gilli Islands - all transport is horse-powered The major Gili, Gili Trawangan, feels more like a youthful playground with lots of burger bars and midnight raves on the beaches, while our chosen Gili, Gili Meno, is quite the opposite. It's quiet, calm, and relaxed.  And our pre-booked hotel was only a short walk away along a coastal path - past a few warungs and through a small forest.   The Seri resort S...

Most of the places we've rented during the last weeks have been small, often quite primitive cottages, but these days - just by coincidence - we've actually come from rags to riches. We're staying at the palace in Sanur, where the former royal family, the Karangasems of East Bali, are now having their residence.   The last of the Raja Karangasem Like the other eight royal Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms on Bali, the Karangasem was incorporated into the Indonesian state in 1950 and the descendants of the Karangasem are now getting a living out of running a hotel, Puri Maharani, on the property of one of their old mansions. We are surrounded by beautiful rooms with chiseled golden doors and Venetian glass chandeliers and a park filled with beautiful orchids, where the 3-year-old crown prince is biking around on the garden paths on his tricycle, monitored by a devoted nanny. We spent the first few days, just sitting in the roy...

We have now moved to the western part of the island of Nusa Penida.  We stay in a  small cot just a few meters from the ocean, but when we go towards the beach,, we have to cross a pigsty and pass a few chickens, and some cows rummaging between the palm trees. This is definitely not a beach town, but a small village of palm leaf wicker huts, where local seaweed harvesters live in the season. The underwater patches make it almost impossible to swim along the coast   Harvesting seaweed   The patches are rows of cords stretching between sticks that hold the weed, and we can see the vast underwater fields when we snorkel. Every day from early morning the men and women are walking into the shallow water collecting small tufts of seaweed which are moved into baskets either balanced on their heads or floating in the water. When harvested, the weed is brought to the beach where it is laid out and dried in the sun, before being...

  Bali is a lovely place to be, but the old timers talk about the days, before the arrival of the masses of Australian backpackers and Chinese charter tourists. At that time it was an even lovelier place, they say. And such a place is actually to be found - even today - just across the Badung Strait, on the small, still relatively unknown island of Nusa Penida. We decided to make the voyage back in time and it IS true: coming from the exuberant, pulsating Bali, you find Nusa Penida to be in a completely different world.     The island is almost without tourists. We haven't seen any proper hotels or restaurants and as we walk around the main town of Sampalan, everybody takes notice, and the locals greet us with laughter and smiles as if we, by our mere existence, really have made their day.   making presents to the gods     Cheeky kids at the marketplace ...

  During the last few days, we've had a lot of nice meals around Ubud and today I decided to have a peek inside one of the local kitchens by taking a cooking class. I was picked up early at our house by a driver. There were already four people waiting on the small bus. Two English and two Australian girls.  The English girls were blogging about fashion and the cooking class was a part of their next blog post. The Australians, however, had their minds focused on the food we were going to cook. The first stop was the marketplace, and we arrived at 8 AM before the market turned into a tourist trap.   Choosing the ingredients We saw flower stalls with all the multi-colored flowers intended for the gods if you were into do-it-yourself offerings. We saw spice shops, stalls selling vegetables, meat, basket ware, beans, and lentils - and the chauffeur, who doubled as the cook, demonstrated the use of the selected spices and fruits. Flowers to the g...

When we decided that we wanted to travel the globe for the next coming years, the island of Bali wasn't on our bucket list - but it grew on us when we heard of the life being led on what the islanders believed is the paradise on earth. A visit to paradise sounded nice, we planned for a stay of a couple of months (not to overstay our welcome or bid into too many forbidden fruits), booked our flight tickets, and found a lodge for the first couple of weeks. Now, we've arrived safely and we find ourselves neatly settled into our new surroundings. We live on the outskirts of Ubud, which is traditionally regarded as Bali's cultural center.   our local rice field   The main street Jalan Rayan   Ubud has many ex-pats who want to immerse themselves in yoga and meditation  but the main street - Jalan Rayan -  is also a myriad of bars and restaurants, and the street is filled with young American, Australian and European b...