gratefulness

walking home after i finished my reiki level 1 course i bumped into a really nice irish couple i had first met about 1 month ago in flores. they're traveling for an indefinite amount of time and as they told me about some of the changes they make to their plans for the next months i realized.... i couldn't be less jealous! isn't it funny... me?! not wishing i would be traveling indefinitely??! and realizing this didn't even surprised me :D i feel so happy and serene to be at this moment of my life :) and i think it's excellent when people are doing what they want to be doing! travel when it's time to travel, not traveling when it's not time to travel, and following you intuition at all times :) i couldn't be more at peace with the place where i am moving in now! it's new... it's definitely very new to me! and it didn't come out of the blue - i got me here, there's a lot of work and energy spent on it! and now i am in this totally new and exciting place which is at the same time totally comfortable and it breaths tranquility all over it :) it's a transition point, clearly the closing of a circle, the starting of a new one. and i am here smiling at it as it comes :)

it feels great!
and i'm very grateful i got this rite of passage in ubud :)

healing

these last ubud days are treating me really well :) i had the best healing session of my life the other day... don't quite have the words to write about it. but believe me, it felt great! and... big! there's a lot of unexplainable things happening in ubud :) and i'm not trying to understand them, i just let them float and touch me and move me and spin me and dance me into the good balance xx it's beautiful here! this is really a special place :) to top it all up today i had a 2h full body massage + facial + special feet reflexology session... with my sweet nyoman mina :) and tomorrow and the next day it's time for reiki! this is the land of the things i can't explain but that i can feel strongly moving me xx and that makes it the place to be for the last days of this trip before i go back to sara's place in singapore (looking forward for that dear sara!)

life is such an amazing adventure :)

another wonderful ubud day

it's hard to feel anything but happiness in this place :) and also... i'm so happy with this trip and all that it has been moving inside me! and to top it all up... i found a book that really fits the end of this island hopping journey :) i think for me bali sums up a bit of what this trip is all about, the same thing that liz in the book finds here in bali - a new path to inner peace so that one can fully love again :) the last 3 years of my life have been the hardest ones so far, and island hopping inside myself was exactly what i needed to do to find peace and rest and love in tranquility again :) so simply happy here in udub ** next monday i'll be home after 2 lovely days in singapore and a perfect yoga class at the same place i started this trip. things always have a way of getting full circled

bali bali bali

ubud again and again and again :) it must be quite obvious on my face how much i love this place and already feel so much at home here because lots of people today asked me if i had been here already many times :) i always said "no, it's only the second time" but who knows? maybe i spent other lifetimes here, maybe i traveled here in my dreams, maybe someone who loves me thought of me while in ubud... maybe i have been here many times and just didn't know it :) what i know is that i LOVE this place! the rice fields, the offerings all the time and everywhere, the smiles, the way the houses are built, the importance given to the arrangement of space, the smell, the sounds, the sweetness in the air... it's beautiful!

today i found out my balinese sign - cremation tower. the character of the 'cremation tower' people is intelligent, well-mannered, responsible, likes to give information, brave, happy and extravagant life, open person, hides nothing. i had a longer explanation done by a balinese teenager and it all sounded a lot like me :)

in all of my trips in asia i like to read a book that is kind of a bad book but that feels good to read - a bit like when i read "the diary of bridget jone's" in vietnam or the last adrian mole in india :) so today i bought "eat pray love" and it feels great to read it! lots of people read this book when traveling in indonesia and after hearing so much about it... it's my time to have an opinion on it! julia roberts has been here in ubud to film the american blockbuster version of the book ;) the third part is set in bali - the time to love, of course ;) :) i'm still on page 9, so it's still all in italy - that's when she eats :)

ok, it got quite late and i still want to go get a korean tea that helps rejuvenating during the night!

i'm really happy... just simply happy :) it's no from eating praying or loving in particular ;) or it is, only in the way we do those things everyday. this happiness is kind of a breeze on a south east asian night x

back to bali

just quickly to say i'm alive and have a huge smile on my face :D the boat trip was mind blowing!! definitely the best snorkeling of my life!!!!!! sharks and dolphins and eels and snakes and thousands of nemos and clams and trumpet fish and lobsters and lion fish and just so many things!!! the komodo dragond were nice too :) but nothing compared with such amazing underwater life! 12 dolphins at a time :) and 5 at the same time jumping up just in front of our boat :):) pretty awesome! after the boat trip was over me and roel asked if they could take us for another week... but of course that was impossible! but as i liked it so much, i tried to look for the thing that would be the most like that and so i went to gili meno :) the quietest of the 3 gilis. and i loved it!! met the nice italian couple that i had met in kanawa island there - funny, we first met on an isolated island and then we met for the second time on another one ;) had a great time there! swimming with turtles and seeing the underwater xmas trees... i'm overwhelmed by the life of the coral!

now back to bali, for a week of ubud :) i got an amazing room! the place where i stayed last time was full so i went and checked a new place that is still not in the guides and... it's beautiful!! really nice place with a nice family and... i have the first hot shower since august in sumatra!!!!!!! this is only the second hot shower since i left sara's place in singapore! so, 3 hot showers on this 4 month trip!! i'm even a bit scared of going under it, my skin might melt or something! hehe

happy to be back here :)

boat life

happy with this life on board :) we have an amazing crew of 5 nice indonesian guys! and it's me and roel from holland. he's really nice and reminds me of piotrek, my first travel mate on this trip. they're about the same age and the way we make jokes and laugh together is similar :) roel has great travel plans and like piotrek he's just starting his traveling life - exciting times! today we head to the island of rinca after some morning snorkeling :) and we'll see the first komodo dragons!!! they eat goats and deer, did you know that?! i can't wait!

just came out of the harbor to do something urgent i had forgotten to do on the internet and to buy mangoes and cashew nuts for the trip. now back to the boat :) heading west!

the rainy season

in east timor someone told me that the rain would arrive on the 5th or 6th of november. and so it did! since the 6th it has been raining everyday :) it rains a LOT!!! and it lasts around half an hour each time :) it's great! when it starts the temperature gets much cooler and the smell of the wet soil travels in the air and i'm really enjoying it right now :)

the world is spoiling me

i feel the world is treating me really well with great comfort and happy moments and amazing people and healers and new smells and tastes and fabulous new textures and unknown bits of me and generous clouds that keep me from the heat and everything just feels... great!

when i left for this trip i was curious with how it would feel to travel for a limited amount of time, already knowing that i would be in indonesia for most of that time. on top of that, this is a 4 month trip, making it a much shorter trip than my previous trips. these are all things that are new to me, as i usually have a lot more space to 'go with the flow', and i almost never make big decisions like time and place before leaving home... well, i found that... this is great! it's exactly what i wanted at the moment, and it is really making me discover new things in me :) i'm happy i chose indonesia and i'm very glad this trip is for this amount of time and not for a year or for an indefinite number of months :) i feel i'm somewhere new, in how comfortable i feel with this :) it's a totally different way of making decisions and going about life

and what a trip this has been so far! it started in london some 13 weeks ago :) from where i flew to singapore. then i headed north in malaysia till i reached penang to get the ferry to medan in sumatra. spent 3 weeks in sumatra :) flew from padang to jakarta and spent a week in java - trying to run away from the crowds of people and the noise and pollution! another ferry took me to bali :D and i really loved that special part of the world! got on another boat to lombok to find really beautiful beaches and fantastic people :) and then i took another boat to dry and gorgeous sumbawa, where i took the ferry to sumba after spending 2 great days at the harbour. sumba blew my mind with its traditional lifestyle, gorgeous unspoiled beaches and amazing people! from there i took the loooong ferry ride to west timor, from where i took the speed boat to the small island of rote where i had the most peaceful week of the trip :) then i traveled overland to east timor and onwards to the most eastern bit of the island, tutuala and the beautiful jaco island :) east timor hit some really special part of me that other countries don't usually reach - magical, really! then i backtracked overland to kupang and got on a ferry to flores, where i got on a boat to lembata island and went south to the village of lembata that moves in a rhythm that would better fit another century... so special :) back to flores with another boat and i started the trip overland to the west tip of flores, labuan bajo :) from here i took a tiny boat to the island of kenawa, and i got back here to labuan bajo today in the morning with the same boat :)

now i have 16 days to go on this trip! 4 of them will be spent on a boat traveling west to lombok through rinca and komodo and the red island and moyo and bola and stopping in great snorkeling stops on the way :) this is definitely the most touristy thing i will do on this trip! but actually... it looks like i might have the boat all to myself! or maybe i'll share with only one more person (that's quite something as the boats coming the other way, from lombok, arrive with 20 people at a time...!) we'll see! tonight i'm already sleeping on the boat here at the harbour :) and i can't wait to be woken up by the harbor's noise in the morning while i get used to the deck that will be home for these 5 days ;)

there is little time to go till i'm back in lisboa :) and this feels great! i've saved my last week, week and a bit, to go back to bali and let that amazing island move me again in that sweet and special way that bali has... and i can't wait for that too!

i'm at a really beautiful time of my life :) i feel a happiness that is really full and it's not coming from external things, it's really coming from inside. i feel a bit like when the traditional healers here work on my energy starting at the belly button... it's all coming from the center :) but maybe this happiness is best visualized if you picture one of those hugs that make everything feel well and balanced and peaceful xx and i feel i'm spoiling the world just as much as the world is spoiling me :) and that feeling is sweet and light and special x

so much has happened in this trip so far! most of it is non wordable and that's why it doesn't fit here. but you will know what i mean when we meet :)

hit song

i'm constantly being brain washed with this

kelimutu, flores

i woke up before 4am today! for the first time in 2 months i put on trousers!! and boots & socks! that's because at 4am i got on a motorbike to go up KELIMUTU to see the three volcanic lakes that change colors all the time :) it's really gorgeous up there! the sunrise was perfect! and the lakes were turquoise, dark green and black :) the locals believe the souls of the dead go to those lakes and there is one lake for the souls of the young people, another for the souls of the wicked and one more for the souls of old and wise people :) it's a really peaceful place! and i met 2 nice dutch ladies to chat with over coffee at 5.30am :) we befriended the old man who sold us coffee and later i walked with him to his village and he waved goodbye as i went on walking down to the waterfall on the way back to my bungalow in moni :) lovely walk! and again that amazing feeling when it's 9am and you have already done so many things!! i decided to go and organize a lunch that was not the usual nasi campur and managed to have some creative food!! but then it was time to go, i felt like moving to another town :) an i ended up getting on a motorbike that brought me to ende :) from where i will take a bus to bajawa tomorrow to meet david, one of the most interesting people i have met on this trip so far :) he's a farmer in sumba and an intelectual in flores and he's totally into psychology and philosophy :) he's also going to take me to a special healing man... let's see what happens!

baleo, baleo!

when someone sees a whale in lamalera they scream "bleo, baleo!" and the men get together on a little wooden boat and go off to chase the whale and kill it with a harpoon made of bamboo :) this is the last place on earth where this happens! and the village is truly special! i stayed at mamma maria's house down there and everyday i ate merlin cooked with tomato and whale oil :) yumm! maria is an awesome cook! but the best present she gave me was... a new and healthier way to walk!! when i got to lamalera i had been on the ferry from kupang for 15hours and then on the boat to lewobata for 4hours and then on a motorbike over a really baaaaad road for 2hours... so i told her how everything in my body hurt, and especially the left hip - knee - foot... she said "i will bring the lady who fixes it" and i said "that would be great, bagus bagus!! terima kasih!" i thought i would be getting a massage... so they brought in the teacher from the secondary school in lamalera to help with the english and with him came mamma roberta. she was a big lady who looked really strong, chewed a lot of betel and had a huge chin. mamma maria sent us to my room with a bamboo mat that i laid on the floor and then i waited for instructions :) berta was apparently half masseuse, half witch ;) and she rotated my left femur and the hip bone to a position that is SO MUCH MORE COMFORTABLE from where it has been for the last 2 years!! (terima kasih mamma berta!)

and if you are in this corner of the world go and visit lamalera, it's truly magical!

also... on the ferry back to larantuka when i left lembata island... i met a really nice malaysian who had been spending his holidays there with relatives and he told me how just the day before they had seen a mermaid! i looked surprised and he said "it is not uncommon here"

smiling with bruno

yesterday it was 3 years since bruno died x x i didn't cry! i think the 3 years were the time i needed to have b's death unsettle everything inside me, totally change me, and then make all of the moved bits of me land in new places and find the balance in the new me :) i am SO LUCKY i met him! i feel truly special for all we lived and for all we still live! and his death at the top of shisha pangma is one of the things that has thought me the most in life! it's really one of the strongest lessons i've had so far! also sharing 10 years with a friend like him... plays a huge role in who i am today :) so great to have met someone so special in such a huge world! and to let go of him with his death! and to understand so clearly how people go on living in the ones they deeply touch :)

back to the west part of the island

i left dili on a mikrolet that played 'the summer of 69' twice :D and also my favorite indonesian hit song :) so it was the perfect transition! as soon as i crossed the border i was thinking 'now people will start taking me everywhere on their motorbikes again' and as soon as i think that, literally 5 or 6 steps after the border... a motorbike stops "hello miss, you want to go there" "yes, terima kasih" "let's go" and off we went :) then it was 9 hour till kupang and when i switched to my indonesian sim card i had a text welcoming back to the west :) by edwin from the avalon cafe in kupang :) and it just feels GREAT to be back!

today around 4pm i will take a ferry to larantuka in flores and there i'll try to get a connection to lamalera, a village that sounds like the setting of moby dick with its whale hunters and little else than the bars where they hung out...

i love indonesia :) and LOVE island hopping!

(have actually been offered a job running the cafe and the hostel here and organizing cinema night in kupang... and with the job comes also my own stretch of land in a small paradise island!!! and a little boat to take me back and forth!)