lombok

lombok is paradise on earth :D
just came back from kuta (look it up - kuta, lombok - NOT kuta, bali!) it's such a GREAT GREAT place! it was very hard to leave... but i'm trying to get to sumba which is not so easy... i almost hopped on the big ship going there the other day... but then i didn't so i could go to kuta beach :) totally worth it! a village full of very nice people! amazing waves - sadly many of them are not being surfed... while the dirty waves in kuta, bali are always overcrowded!
i feel i got a new family in kuta lombok :) and i can't wait to go back! i negotiated 5 ares of land already :) and found a great cook that would work for me :) and i can easily imagine a happy simple life in front of that dramatic landscape listening to the loud LOUD waves :) i've also been invited to work at the university of Mataram :) and i met the perfect surf instructor :) and it feels like part of me is staying in kuta beach, in a dimension where i live that perfect sweet and quiet life by the beautiful ocean, eating ripe fruit and just being happy in that simple way of being happy, the best way i think x
having such a great time here :)
sweet beach days with many papaya shakes and sasak food xx

snorkelling paradise

padangbai, east bali :)
i have seen about 12 nemos today!! and among all the other amazingly coloured fishes.... he's not even that spectacular! traveling underwater and loving it :D
i can see lombok from here though... and every 90min the boat goes and signals a departure... so i might leave soon, and go on island hopping :)

time to make a move

will be leaving ubud after my healing massage :) and my croissant with an energizing smoothie at bali buddha - love that place! i'll be travelling north to the place where bateson and margaret mead lived :):):)

quiet

today i found a great healer :) it's so amazing how different it feels when such hands touch you and everything is stirred and things move, changing all there is inside you, and at the same the universe ** so magical. like this island. all this transformation is quiet and balanced, or tending to some sort of balance, a new way. i love how one has the ability to find the place where they need to be and get there. once there you just have to give space and time and you will find whatever you had to find inside of you. by yourself, through a messenger, with the trick of a massage, a special tea, or any sort of witchcraft that you might coose *

universal happiness

if you contribute to other people's happiness, you will find the true meaning of life. the key point is to have a genuine sense of universal responsibility, the dalai lama

reflection time

everything is alive

yesterday i woke up at 7am with my bed shaking. it was going up and down and to the sides and rocking and it took me a while to realize that it was an earthquake. i got up and tried to think of the things you always hear you should do but i was still half asleep and trying to figure out if those things apply to a hut that only really has a thin wall around it and a straw roof... and by the time i opened the door and started talking with the slightly panicking family from the jungut inn... suddenly it all stopped and things seemed quiet, much more quiet than your average quiet. everything was still and it felt so stable! so i went back to sleep :) for the first few minutes i still felt the bed rocking a bit... and i fell asleep feeling great to know that everything is so alive and moving, so much that the earth can shake you out of your place like that :) it was a 6.4 earthquake apparently ++

:):):):):):):):):):):)

i'm very happy :) one of the reasons is that i'm reading a beautiful book that found me at the right time (like usually!) - 'the brave new world' is really moving things inside me and i travel happily in the company of the great character bernard! and i am just very glad to be here in bali :) i have to admit that before coming i felt a bit of a snob about it and thought 'oh no, not me, i won't like bali, it's so touristy' bla bla bla. and then i got here.... and as soon as i left kuta (only 15hours after i arrived, 7 of which i slept)... i discovered wonderful bali :) i haven't been very far away from ubud yet, only as far as i can walk in a day ;) but the villages close by are wonderful! the rhythm is soft and the smells are beautifully sweet :) the pace of life suits me and i am enjoying a quietness i had missed for some time now. this is exactly what i meant when i felt i missed india. this unhurried way of moving, the joy in living, the care for the universe, this mood of having your arms open at all times, of living in balance, of caring, and this knowledge of finding the place to be for now. and this amazing wisdom that there is in knowing how to live this NOW. 'the human spirit doesn't know the after and doesn't know what was already. i have trouble knowing the tomorrow, i don't know, i am not there. here, i am here now, this i know.' told me an old lady today ** i follow her wisdom, or try to. most of all, i'm happy to be alive and my heart feels big and shiny and warm but fresh at the same time, light *

check this out

http://www.flickr.com/photos/m_adam_maclean/
those are the photos by sumatra travel mate adam who gave me the wonderful book i'm reading, was recovering from a nastier motorbike accident than mine, and who is also on his way to west canada (slooooowly!)

a funny story he told me:
while going around north scotland last year he bumped into a beggar who help a cup at him asking for money... he looked at the cup and it was a tim horton's cup!!! now how did that get there all the way from canada to that guy's hand?!...

oh the world ;)

:D

smile at others and keep the world smiling, the dalai lama

lovely week in ubud :)

i'm really loving this place ** the thought has crossed my mind to stay here for the last 2 thirds of my trip... there is so much to explore in bali :) meanwhile i found a great blog with lots of bali info, if you feel like investigating

this is a place to come back with your loved ones, or when you want to hear some part deep inside of you and maybe even a spot to come live once retired ;) :) it's really really nice! the vibe in the air is just fabulous and one feels like lingering around a lifetime. or many



everywhere the offerings, the blessings, the shrines, the demons, the gods * . * . *

i keep on seeing this vehicle :) love it!

me at my ubud room at jungut inn after having the banana pancake and the tropical fruit salad for breakfast :) and tea, always tea, at all times tea :) as you can see i had just done my laundry - all is clean and smells of fresh flowers like the air around it!

ubud, bali

this is one of those places that is touristy for a reason.... it's amazing :D i feel i could stay a couple of months! great atmosphere and fantastic landscape all around with lush rice paddies and traditional villages :) no wonder there is such a big community of foreigners living here, it's really great! there's everything to make everyone happy :) and this is greatly why bali is so famous! you can get a great 2h massage with a flower bath and a facial for less than 10 euros.... a pedicure with half an hour massage for 2.5 euros... and a brownie for 60 cents :D yumm! there's illy coffee next to local stalls selling the normal nasi goreng and mie goreng (fried rice and fried noodles) and evian water on supermarkets for 15x the price of local water ;) there are amazing yoga classes and a meeting of 100 yoga teachers for world peace next saturday!! :) and you can learn indonesian cuisine, indonesian language, balinese dance, hinduism, buddhism, batik, shadow puppeteer, and all sorts of other things around town ;) there's also rafting close by :) and all of that makes this place... perfect!

ubud is the place to be :) i have an amazing room as big as the house i lived in when i did my erasmus in toulouse, with pancake, fruit salad and perfect javanese coffee in the morning :) the place is owned by a sweet family that takes care of the garden with the temple and the beautiful birds :)

loving it!

an island in the caribbean

did you know that there is an island in the caribbean where single mums have a higher status than anyone else in their society?

bali

if you click on the photo you can see the name of the boat and be amazed like i was :)




so i said goodbye to java and got on the ferry to bali :) this island looks amazing! but i still have to leave kuta to explore it. kuta is just like you can imagine it... filled with drank australians that drink by night and surf in the day... and it's packed with foreigners! just on the bus from the ferry to denpassar i saw more tourists than in the entire 3 weeks in sumatra! i'll make a move out of kuta SOON!



kuta beach

mount bromo

i think that is the most beautiful volcano i have ever seen :D got up there with daniel from leipzig and louie from brighton and we shared the price of 2 rooms to make it a bit cheaper as prices up in the mountain were inflated as usually... the boys had their night bintang and we shared travel tales :) and off to bed to get up at 3am and climb up! louie took the jeep up, me and daniel did it the hard way :) and we saw the sunrise from the most beautiful viewpoint in the mountain :D also, there was no one else there because everyone had taken a jeep to the official viewpoint a bit higher then ours - well done for us!! it was absolutely amazing! we still walked up to where all the jeeps gathered and met louie who walked back down with us :)

my stomach wasn't feeling great... perhaps from the overcharged food at our expensive mountain hotel! but it didn't make the experience any less fantastic! and as we got back to the hotel around 9.30am we all went to sleep until 2.30pm and by them the stomach was back to normal! :)

we read our great books and walked to bromo for sunset :) again, a bit after the sunset there was no one else there... people seem to only want to be there for those minutes of the sun going up or down and that's it... they leave right after that! so the 3 of us sat at the crater and enjoyed the beauty of bromo :) it was really magical!

and so was the walk back to the hotel in the dark... we looked up and saw the most beautiful sky :D with shooting stars and that feeling that we are so small and there is SO MUCH MORE out there :D

got back and the boys got their bintangs again :) while i tried some local warm drink with kacang - peanuts. yumm!

the next day we couldn't be asked to walk up again ;) it was time to sleep and make the most of our overpriced beds! after breakfast we left on our over packed bemos and said goodbye at the bottom of the mountain as we were all headed to different places. i went east to take the ferry to bali xx

if you feel like calling vasco da gama ;)

if you feel like giving him a call he said he'd love to talk to my portuguese friends and practice the language!

love these rickshaw rides

when i move around by rickshaw the most incredible thoughts and feelings cross my mind... especially if it's before 7am like this ride :)

cute little mouse

was looking for some biscuits and look what i found ;)

hello mister!

hello mister!
i'm not mister, i'm miss.
ok mister.

what's your name?
saya nama rita.
indonesian name! you indonesian name!

where you from?
portugal.
portugal? cristiano ronaldo is portugal!

how old you are?
tiga satu.
tiga satu? you looks young!

where you go?
jalan jalan. (walking walking = going for a stroll)
jalan jalan......

are you going bali?
yes, after java.
bali very good! you likes it

:)

the girtl from ipanema

they're playing this wonderful song at the hotel in solo where i'm using the internet :) they also have the best keyboard i've seen in a long time!!

and i just wanted to say that i finished the book i got from canadian jay at the airport in dubai and have now started a new one that i got from canadian adam at lake maninjau :) i keep on bumping into canadian guys with books that i've always wanted to read... this time it's "a brave new world". have only read 2 chapters so far but i can already tell that it is a great book :) (terima kasih adam! and good luck healing those wounds!! also... hati hati on the next motorbike trip!)

solo is so relaxed... perfect!

hahaha

on a great mood :D the people in solo are so nice!! everyone wants to give me a lift on their motorbike and buy me the local pancake - yumm! so far i tried the chocolate, jackfruit, black beans and banana varieties ;) they're great!! solo by motorbike at rush hour is much better than jakarta by motorbike at rush hour :) and i think i'm getting used to sitting on the back of a motorbike without a helmet and driving against the traffic... fast until we turn to the other direction and dodge all the other motorbikes! it's exciting :) should have time for another crazy ride and maybe the sweetcorn pancake before i leave for mount bromo xx

the old lady

on my last day in sumatra i walked up the hill behind my guesthouse and i reached a really nice village where the kids ran down to give me flowers and to say hello and ask for photo photo! it was so sweet! i walked a bit further and i came upon an old lady that walked to me and started talking in indonesian. she asked if i can understand it, i said "just a little bit, not much" and she went on talking and talking and talking.... 20 something minutes of a conversation in bahasa indonesian :D i loved that old lady!! every now and then she said 'jakarta' which made me come up with a few stories of her moving to sumatra from the capital... i guess i made up stories of everything she said :) it was lovely!

thinking of sumatra

my 3 sumatra weeks were GREAT :D i loved the sibayak volcano in berastagi with the crater filled with the names of those who passed by :) then the orangutans in ketambe and the super nice mus family!! mama mus made some excellent massages :) then the overnight trip to banda aceh was definitely a huge challenge as that is one scary trip!! pulau weh was gorgeous :) even if the weather was bad! the bungalow there has been my favorite room so far! then i went to lake toba, which i loved but found too touristy ;) had the motorbike accident, went to bukittinggi where i got a spectacular healing massage :) and then went to rest in lake maninjau :) because of the leg not being 100% well and of the strong winds delaying the boat to mentawai... i decided against going to visit that tribe and getting my mentawai tattoo. also lala's warning in bukittinggi got me thinking... and i definitely don't need a mentawai tattoo to be happy ;) i'm pretty happy without it, and without going to that island filled with malaria! maybe some other time when it feels right?!

the very best of sumatra was the people and the food, the incredible landscape, the music, and the amazing conversations with other travelers :) also the thoughts and feelings inside myself :) and that strong thing that traveling does... when i realize how much i have changed and i get to see my new fears and my new wishes and dreams clearly in front of me :) it's incredible how much the last 3 years have changed me! i'm still only starting to understand it! and i like it :) i love it :) i'm someone so different traveling now, it's so cool to feel that! so sumatra was also that for me :D now java is more of an in between thing, just on my way to bali! but looking forward to mt. bromo before i hop on to the mystic island xx

2nd day in java, borobudur

this island has a totally different vibe to it than sumatra. it has a huge population and it's much more "developed" than sumatra, and it doesn't have the charm that sumatra has in its chaos and its gorgeous landscape :) but java has temples! today i went to borobundur and loved it!! it didn't have the impact of angkor wat or bagan... but it was still really nice to see :) i love these old buddhist temples :) i won't be going to the hindu tempe close by because i realized i'm not in such a temple mood at the moment ;) also, i want to get going to solo and then mount bromo and then i'll leave java and go to.... bali :D can't wait!!

jakarta

yesterday i woke up in lake maninjau and it felt like it was time to go. i had my last pancake and coffee, said goodbye to the guys and took a minibus to the airport in padang. shopped around for the cheapest flight to jakarta, got a ticket and waited around for the flight. at night time i was already here. took a tuktuk to the tourist area - jl jaksa and spent the night in an overpriced bad room, but clean!

before i got this room i looked at another hostel where the guy said i could stay for free if i would sleep with him... - and i passed on the 4Euro savings ;)

today i got a train ticket to yogyakarta :) and will be going there at 7pm!

meanwhile i met a guy from east timor called vasco da gama and we spent the morning together speaking portuguese :) and then had a great lunch together! as we sat down he said "the restaurants here are from 3000 years back..." and then he called the food there "cultural degradation"... but i think the food here is quite good! i could use a bit more variety... and am totally tired of eating rice... but the food is good!

then i went back for coffee with the finish guy from my guesthouse who traveled by land from finland to australia and is now on his way back home again ;)

only a few more hours in jakarta!

the leg is better :)

thanks for the support!! the last 4 days i had 2hour massages everyday :) that helped a LOT! ca va aller :)

back on a motorbike

because it's always better to face your fears than to let them grow... i accepted ade's invitation to take me for a spin on his motorbike :) i'm happy i did! was totally scared... but it got better... and in the end it was ok :) i love ade! he's deaf but hears me better than a lot of people ;)

lake maninjau

spent the first night at lili's GH where the guy didn't have any food so i starved for the day... until next morning when he felt bad for me with such a high fever and went and bought things to make a banana pancake. i also ordered coffee and got tea. during breakfast thankfully the sweet german couple from lake toba arrived and rescued me out of lili's :) we moved next door to an amazing guesthouse run by a sweet family :D the first traveler i met there is also recovering from a motorbike accident, so it seems like i came to the right place! also john, from the GH, gives great massages that are helping me with the healing process :)

a warning

when i got to bukittinggi i felt like a ghost... i had to walk for 5km to get some food because it's ramadan and only the western cafe sells food. with a 40 degree fever it took me a long time to get there. and when i got there i almost passed out on the table. a pineapple shake and a chocolate pancake brought me back to life and i had just about enough energy to ask the nice guy for a medicine lady. we walked together. when we got there she was busy so we sat on a wooden bench. i told him about the motorbike accident. and about the car crash 2 years ago. la la told me "you know, this already happened to you 2 times, if you don't stop moving around so much so quickly it will happen again, and the third time you die"

crossing the equator

i drove past the equator on a town called bonjol while they played this song on the bus:

an hour of other scorpions hits followed...

a curve every 20 metres...

the road to bukittinggi was AWFUL !! it felt like a car accident that lasted 18hours... bad back pain, hip pain, a hot swollen area and a japanese proverb at the tip of my tongue:
'if you fall 7 times, get up 8 times'

tarkovsky

while we were lost in the mountain road yesterday we came to a point when it felt like we had entered a tarkovsky film with fog and puddles and reflections and ways in to other dimensions. maybe we did go in and are still walking around in circles?

oh boy oh boy

i was having breakfast yesterday, getting ready to leave town and say good bye to my 2 travel mates - we got one more crazy with us now, johanes from germany ;) but it was the first sunny day in a long time and the guys rented motorbikes and were sad that i was living... so when i saw them starting to drive away i called piotrek and said - wait up i'm coming too! and that's how i ended up staying here one more day :) to enjoy the sun! we had a lovely day driving through the batak villages (we didn't see any cannibal but met some really nice people!) and we drove around half of this island until we came to a really dodgy road going inland and johan thought the view from the top would be nice :) so there we were on our city scooters driving in some of the most 4x4 terrain i've ever seen... and the view from the top was gorgeous indeed :) but i started to rain on us... and we came up to a corner where there was a lovely cafe and i asked the guys 'how about some coffee with condensed milk to dry off and let the rain pass?' but they thought it would be better to drive quickly into town. so we went on, we turned, and when we turn we get to a really deep mud road where it feels impossible to keep the bike straight... so me and piotrek slide away and both fall on my left side, with the scooter on top... oh boy oh boy! i got a big scratch on the top of my tight and the whole area swell to the size of a honeydew melon!
but that was not all... we still needed to get home... and this was some sh**** road!! piotrek (pedrito!) was now too scared to drive with me so i moved to johan's bike. and eventually we made it... but we were lost in the mountain for 3 horrible hours! when the guys didn't want to respect my good sense of direction because johan is a boy scout and he thought he could smell the town - hahaha. anyway, we ended up having to turn back for about 1hour till the road i wanted to take and the boys had to admit 'dam, the girl knew it!' haha - so we made a rule to always trust girls! (quite an achievement from such a small feat, but i dont' till it will last!)
anyway, we made it back and we ate like people who had starved for a week and we still went to some sort of political gathering in tuk tuk and then we shared our room that now with 3 costs 80 cents each!! and in the morning all seems better because the sun is shinning and this lake is gorgeous and the tight is still sore as hell and huge... but it will all get well :)
i come to the same conclusion that me and motorbikes are not good friends ;) and i'll be sticking to walking which i much prefer anyways :)
off to bukittingi soon and from there another beautiful lake!
(kyle, you ARE right, it's great to swim in fresh water!!)

look who the boat brought in

i was walking down the street in tuk tuk and a tall blond guy asked me "are you rita?". he had came on the boat with piotrek and that's how we started the trio xx

first hot shower

in tuk tuk i had the first hot shower of my trip since i left sara's place in singapore :D it makes me so happy!! there's also running water for the first time since singapore :) cool thing to have such an easy life for a few days!

pictures from lake toba, samosir island, sumatra

i have many many more but the net just crashed at this internet place and somehow it's like the last hour downloading pictures didn't happen...! sooner or later i'll do it ;)