Hi from the sunny and idyllic Gili Trawangan!
We want to wish all of you out there a merry christmas wherever you are! We are at this moment enjoying a white christmas on the beach with blue green water and a car and scooter free island! It's as perfect as it can be but also strange for us to think it's christmas eve...
Tonight we will share some presents and after have a good dinner at the waterside :-)
Have a peacefull and gooood christmas with your familly and loved ones!
Ho ho ho from family Frohe and Romeyn <3
Friday, December 24, 2010
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Fortunate
We are fortunate in so many ways. Fortunate to be able to be here 10 months, do what we do and experience everything we do. Fortunate to have been born into the lives we have in the western countries with money and all the opportunities we can imagine. Fortunate to have the luxury and freedom of choice in every situation we are in. But I realise more and more for each day here how much we also lose or miss because of all this wealth. In Norway as an example I know that we complain all the time about something instead of appreciating what we have and what we do and we are the richest and wealthiest country in the world. As people in Norway and Netherlands we have the opportunity to change what we want in life whenever we want, although many of us don’t realise this, we are stuck in our own patrons and think we have to search for happiness somewhere new and outside ourselves.
The Balinese peoples fortune in my eyes is that they are born into a way of living that contains a lot of spirituality and to live in the moment, sounds so simple, but did you and I grow up this way? I think as a child we all do and we all are spiritual, but we learn to plan everything ahead what to do and how we will do it, we forget to live in the moment. I know this is a cliché and that a lot of us are aware of this lately, it’s modern to be spiritual and to seek other happiness than in materialism and career. But I realise here that we still don’t know how to easily change and think different than we always have learned in our culture and upbringing, even tough we know things through knowledge and traveling. Who can blame us? We are also just living within our own boundaries with our own references.
I have to think about papa, I remember how he was to me as a child and how he let me stay spiritual and dreamy as long as I wanted it and needed it, later in life he also never made any stress out of anything and always took the day as it was and didn’t plan anything in terms of having to feel obligated to things or worry about something yet to come. The stress inside me and that I also often forget to live in the moment comes from later in life and the culture and society I grew up in.
In Bali they don’t worry so much about what is going to happen tomorrow, they have a saying that I hear here a lot: ‘…like the river flows…’ It symbolises the way they look at life, they don’t plan much ahead, they are not afraid for what will happen next and they believe strongly in the flow of the river and that it takes them to were they’re supposed to go. There are absolutely less fortunate sides about thinking this way, Balinese often don’t plan things efficiently and on time, they don’t always stand up for themselves and they are too (in western ways) humble against another person, being on time is a wide term here. And children don’t were helmets on the scooters and they drive from age 10. Probably I will find out more in the rest of my time here. And still I have to say, I would like to think, feel and look at the world more like a Balinese, if we all did, we would have had A LOT less wars on this planet. We look at Bali with our organised and western look and then think they don’t work efficiently…but who am I to say who is right?
The fortunate anyhow side is clearly that they are much more in touch with them selves inside and they know from childhood already that everybody is the same inside and live on one planet. Off course western/material greed has taken over a lot of the culture also here, but still they have a totally different way of dealing with it. Yet….I hope it will sty like this.
Yesterday I took a taxi from Ubud back home together with Els and Loek. The driver was a dedicated Balinese Hindu who really enjoyed to tell us about the Balinese way of life and the religion. When he understood that I know a few things and that I was very interested to know more about different things, he didn’t stop talking, laughing the typical Balinese way and explain things. He was such a happy man, he told about all different traditions, offerings, ceremonies, way of looking at life, the world and God. It was all so logical for him and he could explain it in such an easy way. God is in us al, but also in the trees or in the animals and everything around us. We are all the same, but also every person is unique. He lives today and doesn’t know what he will do tomorrow, even tonight, he said, I don’t know what will happen, and then he laughed… The greatest thing here is that they don’t want to force anything on you, even better, they don’t even care what you believe. In their eyes we are still the same inside and good and bad is in and outside us all. This they try to keep in balance by for example offering a lot.
He told about karma and how you can learn and change your whole life, if something did not go well you have to evaluate and then change it. It all was so simple for him. And this is wisdom that we western people read in books and here from great thinkers, writers and spiritualists. And there you are talking to a Balinese taxi driver and you have the first seat to one of the most essential and spiritual lectures you can get, fantastic! :-) He also had a great fun trying to teach me some Balinese, haha, I think I will stay with the Indonesian in first place, but it’s nice to know some Balinese too. I love Bali!
So who is more fortunate? That’s the question.
I could go on telling about the culture and the Hinduism here, and I am still learning. There will come more thoughts and philosophies from me for sure.
The Balinese peoples fortune in my eyes is that they are born into a way of living that contains a lot of spirituality and to live in the moment, sounds so simple, but did you and I grow up this way? I think as a child we all do and we all are spiritual, but we learn to plan everything ahead what to do and how we will do it, we forget to live in the moment. I know this is a cliché and that a lot of us are aware of this lately, it’s modern to be spiritual and to seek other happiness than in materialism and career. But I realise here that we still don’t know how to easily change and think different than we always have learned in our culture and upbringing, even tough we know things through knowledge and traveling. Who can blame us? We are also just living within our own boundaries with our own references.
I have to think about papa, I remember how he was to me as a child and how he let me stay spiritual and dreamy as long as I wanted it and needed it, later in life he also never made any stress out of anything and always took the day as it was and didn’t plan anything in terms of having to feel obligated to things or worry about something yet to come. The stress inside me and that I also often forget to live in the moment comes from later in life and the culture and society I grew up in.
In Bali they don’t worry so much about what is going to happen tomorrow, they have a saying that I hear here a lot: ‘…like the river flows…’ It symbolises the way they look at life, they don’t plan much ahead, they are not afraid for what will happen next and they believe strongly in the flow of the river and that it takes them to were they’re supposed to go. There are absolutely less fortunate sides about thinking this way, Balinese often don’t plan things efficiently and on time, they don’t always stand up for themselves and they are too (in western ways) humble against another person, being on time is a wide term here. And children don’t were helmets on the scooters and they drive from age 10. Probably I will find out more in the rest of my time here. And still I have to say, I would like to think, feel and look at the world more like a Balinese, if we all did, we would have had A LOT less wars on this planet. We look at Bali with our organised and western look and then think they don’t work efficiently…but who am I to say who is right?
The fortunate anyhow side is clearly that they are much more in touch with them selves inside and they know from childhood already that everybody is the same inside and live on one planet. Off course western/material greed has taken over a lot of the culture also here, but still they have a totally different way of dealing with it. Yet….I hope it will sty like this.
Yesterday I took a taxi from Ubud back home together with Els and Loek. The driver was a dedicated Balinese Hindu who really enjoyed to tell us about the Balinese way of life and the religion. When he understood that I know a few things and that I was very interested to know more about different things, he didn’t stop talking, laughing the typical Balinese way and explain things. He was such a happy man, he told about all different traditions, offerings, ceremonies, way of looking at life, the world and God. It was all so logical for him and he could explain it in such an easy way. God is in us al, but also in the trees or in the animals and everything around us. We are all the same, but also every person is unique. He lives today and doesn’t know what he will do tomorrow, even tonight, he said, I don’t know what will happen, and then he laughed… The greatest thing here is that they don’t want to force anything on you, even better, they don’t even care what you believe. In their eyes we are still the same inside and good and bad is in and outside us all. This they try to keep in balance by for example offering a lot.
He told about karma and how you can learn and change your whole life, if something did not go well you have to evaluate and then change it. It all was so simple for him. And this is wisdom that we western people read in books and here from great thinkers, writers and spiritualists. And there you are talking to a Balinese taxi driver and you have the first seat to one of the most essential and spiritual lectures you can get, fantastic! :-) He also had a great fun trying to teach me some Balinese, haha, I think I will stay with the Indonesian in first place, but it’s nice to know some Balinese too. I love Bali!
So who is more fortunate? That’s the question.
I could go on telling about the culture and the Hinduism here, and I am still learning. There will come more thoughts and philosophies from me for sure.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Visits on Bali :-)
We are here for 3 month already, time has really flown away, the weeks pass but the feeling is different. I think it comes from the fact that we don’t realise so often which month and time of year it is. Even though we know about the snow back home we don’t feel the season change here, besides that the rain season is coming. The body is so used to that it should have been autumn and winter right now that it still thinks its summer. But we have been buying a few Christmas gifts and we here music all around here in the shops and everywhere. So its slowly coming to us ;-)
At the moment we have a lot of visits, a few weeks ago, Aina and Tonje (daughters of Anders, my brother) came with a friend and stayed in Bali for 3 weeks. They will leave Saturday. Together we have been to Padangbai, Ubud and temple Pura Tanah Lot and off course a number of times just at the closest beach. We have had a lot of fun together and for me (Iris) it has been a great thing to get to know them better than I did before, we match good together and have a lot to talk about, pity that Sofie just misses out to meet them this time. The last nights we could also offer the girls a room in the old villa we lived in before, because we moved BACK TO OUR HOUSE! :-) It’s great to finally live and settle for real in the house, which is ours for the rest of the time here! We have finally emptied all of our bags and suitcases and made an own place for everything somewhere in this cosy house. We love this house!
Last Saturday Els, Loek, Marion and Jort came from NL and we picked them up from the airport. After an almost 30 hour travel they were pretty jetlagged and tired. Monday Loek, Jort and Marion were sick, stomach trouble and throwing up. We were never sick like this (besides Rino’s fever in India) until now, and 3 of the 4 catch it the 2nd day. But luckily it was quickly over for all of them and Wednesday everybody was eating normal food again. This week we have room for everybody in the house, next week somebody has to sleep in the villa. But that’s no problem, we have rented 3 scooters extra. It’ s going surprisingly well with driving the scooters. Loek and Jort both needed a few times to get used to drive left and to understand this traffic a bit, but its going perfect :-)
This Saturday we will pick up mamma, Sofie and Roger on the airport also after a 30-hour travel. Hope they will be luckier with the ‘Bali belly’ and not get sick and feel so bad. So for 2 weeks we will be a group of 9 people and 23 of December we go to the Gili islands for 5 days and to celebrate a white Christmas on the beach of Gili Travangan :-) The Christmas music on the IPod is ready to be plaid on the beach ;-) We look forward to go and we do the sun dance every day so we don’t get rain on the Gili’s when we are there.
At the moment we have a lot of visits, a few weeks ago, Aina and Tonje (daughters of Anders, my brother) came with a friend and stayed in Bali for 3 weeks. They will leave Saturday. Together we have been to Padangbai, Ubud and temple Pura Tanah Lot and off course a number of times just at the closest beach. We have had a lot of fun together and for me (Iris) it has been a great thing to get to know them better than I did before, we match good together and have a lot to talk about, pity that Sofie just misses out to meet them this time. The last nights we could also offer the girls a room in the old villa we lived in before, because we moved BACK TO OUR HOUSE! :-) It’s great to finally live and settle for real in the house, which is ours for the rest of the time here! We have finally emptied all of our bags and suitcases and made an own place for everything somewhere in this cosy house. We love this house!
Last Saturday Els, Loek, Marion and Jort came from NL and we picked them up from the airport. After an almost 30 hour travel they were pretty jetlagged and tired. Monday Loek, Jort and Marion were sick, stomach trouble and throwing up. We were never sick like this (besides Rino’s fever in India) until now, and 3 of the 4 catch it the 2nd day. But luckily it was quickly over for all of them and Wednesday everybody was eating normal food again. This week we have room for everybody in the house, next week somebody has to sleep in the villa. But that’s no problem, we have rented 3 scooters extra. It’ s going surprisingly well with driving the scooters. Loek and Jort both needed a few times to get used to drive left and to understand this traffic a bit, but its going perfect :-)
This Saturday we will pick up mamma, Sofie and Roger on the airport also after a 30-hour travel. Hope they will be luckier with the ‘Bali belly’ and not get sick and feel so bad. So for 2 weeks we will be a group of 9 people and 23 of December we go to the Gili islands for 5 days and to celebrate a white Christmas on the beach of Gili Travangan :-) The Christmas music on the IPod is ready to be plaid on the beach ;-) We look forward to go and we do the sun dance every day so we don’t get rain on the Gili’s when we are there.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Trash = Cash
Last weekend (27nov) we were in Ubud again, this time mainly because an event at the foundation. The 2 weeks before we had a big group of American students doing a project with our teenagers at Sjaki. The students are coming from a university in California and are traveling around the world for 4 months in 10 different countries. In every country they did something good for people. And on Bali they were spending time with our teenagers and us making a lot of stuff. The project slowly took form prior to the time should come. It became a project were they made different items out of all kind of trash that we and others had saved up the last couple of months. The two weeks ended with an event/thank you party with the students and teenagers. All kind of people were invited to come and all the children and parents also. The items made during the two weeks were sold this day by the American students, there was a band playing and there was food and drinks for everybody! :-) It was a great success and the teenagers, children, students and other guests were dancing for hours during the middle of the day in a HOT HOT Ubud. Everybody was sweaty and happy and Sjaki made a lot of money during the day! :-) It was a fantastic experience seeing all the children and teenagers having such a great time dancing and jumping around to the music with all the other happy people. The Americans were great, they loved the teenagers and the children and were very enthusiastic. They also gat a lot of trust from the teenagers witch also is a big complement to them.
In the evening we made plans to eat with one of the girls we had talked to the most and from there we headed over to a lounge/disco where we partied together all of us to celebrate the successful day and as a goodbye party for the Americans who were leaving for China last Monday.
It was a great weekend but also really cool getting to know the group Americans, I must say I admirer the way they travel, their university has made a programme/semester about seeing the world and connecting it to a number of subjects they have in school. They visit Argentina, Russia, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Kenya, India, Indonesia and China. This all in 4 months. The students are all around 20 years old. What an experience it must be! They enjoyed it that’s for sure, and we enjoyed them:-)
Sunday we finally bought our sets with traditional Balinese clothing, so now we can join all kinds of ceremonies here and look completely like we are supposed to here :-) Iris’ blouse had to be made by a tailor, because it should be custom-made, the sarong and Rino’s clothing we bought at a marked. Picture will come later.
To see the products made with the Americans and pictures from the weekend see here. (Because the blog is available to everybody I exclude pictures of Sjaki’s children and teenagers): I dont know why but some pictures are not uploaded well on the webalbum, so they look damaged, sorry about that.
http://picasaweb.google.com/fromeynfotos7/TrashIsCash?authkey=Gv1sRgCJrg6Oulr8bo6QE
In the evening we made plans to eat with one of the girls we had talked to the most and from there we headed over to a lounge/disco where we partied together all of us to celebrate the successful day and as a goodbye party for the Americans who were leaving for China last Monday.
It was a great weekend but also really cool getting to know the group Americans, I must say I admirer the way they travel, their university has made a programme/semester about seeing the world and connecting it to a number of subjects they have in school. They visit Argentina, Russia, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Kenya, India, Indonesia and China. This all in 4 months. The students are all around 20 years old. What an experience it must be! They enjoyed it that’s for sure, and we enjoyed them:-)
Sunday we finally bought our sets with traditional Balinese clothing, so now we can join all kinds of ceremonies here and look completely like we are supposed to here :-) Iris’ blouse had to be made by a tailor, because it should be custom-made, the sarong and Rino’s clothing we bought at a marked. Picture will come later.
To see the products made with the Americans and pictures from the weekend see here. (Because the blog is available to everybody I exclude pictures of Sjaki’s children and teenagers): I dont know why but some pictures are not uploaded well on the webalbum, so they look damaged, sorry about that.
http://picasaweb.google.com/fromeynfotos7/TrashIsCash?authkey=Gv1sRgCJrg6Oulr8bo6QE
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Picture link and address
Here the link with the pictures of last weekend:
http://picasaweb.google.com/fromeynfotos7/PadangbaiWeekend?authkey=Gv1sRgCOXGm-Lq-ZuTGw#
Our house here on Bali does not really have an address, therefore we us the address of Rino's hotel. So underneeth our address for if you want to send something:
Puri Saron Seminyak
attn Iris Frohe & Rino Romeyn
Jl. Camplung Tanduk
80361 Seminyak
Kuta-Bali
Indonesia
http://picasaweb.google.com/fromeynfotos7/PadangbaiWeekend?authkey=Gv1sRgCOXGm-Lq-ZuTGw#
Our house here on Bali does not really have an address, therefore we us the address of Rino's hotel. So underneeth our address for if you want to send something:
Puri Saron Seminyak
attn Iris Frohe & Rino Romeyn
Jl. Camplung Tanduk
80361 Seminyak
Kuta-Bali
Indonesia
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Ubud and Padangbai weekends
The last 2 weekends we have spend in Ubud and Padangbai. Here our story's:
Ubud (12 – 14 November 2010)
The foundation of Iris (Sjaki-Tari-Us) was hosting (their building) to Bali’s International Meditation Festival, with the motto: “Living life in peace, love and harmony through mediation”. Therefore Iris was scheduled to sit by the booth of the foundation for half a day. This was a good opportunity for us to explore Ubud some more and maybe find our inner self’s ;-) Besides we could participate for free at all workshops and seminars because of them using the building :-)
On Friday night we arrived by our home stay and went out for some dinner by the Warung of Sjaki, called Sjaki’s Warung. Iris knew that one of the teenagers was working and wanted to see how he was doing. He was doing very well and we had a lovely and cheap dinner. Afterwards we had some drinks with Dutch and Balinese colleagues of Iris. The Balinese drink (spirit) arak was having its effect on us this night, haha, we don’t drink much alcohol here. And when the Balinese drink, its mostly the strong arak witch goes around the table in 1 shot glass.
The next day was the first day of the meditation festival and while Iris was sitting at the booth of the foundation Rino joined some workshops. By the booth Iris had some very fascinating talks with some interesting visitors of the festival and Rino tried to meditate… One of the workshops, Rino joined, was held by an Indonesian women and the other by an American. Especially the workshop held by the Indonesian women was hard to follow while everything had to be translated, but still a nice experience to try to meditate. At least it was very interesting to witness all the meditation around us and all the knowledge and experience of the people coming there. And last but not least the vibe and atmosphere that was hanging around the place. It’s sounds “flying high” and dreamy, we know, but this were mostly down to earth people with a message how we all can live more balanced lives and contribute to world peace. So guess its good for all of us…
In the evening a ceremony was planned and we decided to see what it entailed. It was a wonderful evening with lots of Balinese dance -and sing performances, we both enjoyed it very much.
Sunday we both joined two seminars, with discussions about meditation and Balinese culture. This was again a bit hard to follow while the Balinese speakers had to be translated and sometimes they where so caught up in their story that they forgot to pause and wait for the translate. Although this fact we still enjoyed hearing these great speakers talk. Later on in the afternoon we joined a workshop about meditation from an American lady, which was a special experience again.
In between we walked around the city Ubud and saw what attracts people to this village, while walking you can feel the Balinese culture. The village is full of creative souls, arts & crafts and environmental friendly alternatives. There are also so many great shopping places and nice restaurants. It is a great alternative to Seminyak and Kuta, which is made for mass tourism. We decided that we would go for some more weekends in Ubud in the future.
PadangBai (19 – 21 November 2010)
We wanted a chill-out weekend and chose to go to Padangbai, which is a small harbour and backpacker town located on the east side of the island. Rino had read a nice story in the Bali Advertiser (a local paper, with advertisements and some stories) about a hostel in PadangBai and that same hostel was the ‘Our Pick’ of the Lonely Planet, so the choice was easy. The hostel was called Topi Inn and owned by a Dutch man. It had a great atmosphere and was very cosy, read more about the hostel in Rino’s review on TripAdvisor: http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g1078452-d1656115-r87818781-Topi_Inn-Padangbai_Bali.html. In the evening we went out for a drink in a local bar and there we could really feel the backpacker vibe.
Saterday morning we rented snorkelling gear and headed up to the near Blue Lagoon beach, which would be a great snorkelling beach. The snorkelling was great and we saw our first tropical fish and corals of this trip. The beach however was very small and not a good place to swim, so in the afternoon we decided to go to the other beach of PadangBai. That beach was amazingly beautiful. White sand, turquoise waters and some real warungs (small kitchen made out of some bamboo sticks). It was a great spot and we loved to hangout on this beach. To come to the beach we had to climb a small hill though, but that made the beach even more idyllic. We loved the beach so much that we spend the complete Sunday over there. On Saturday night we went back to the Babylon Bar, where we were the day before as well. They had live music planned for the evening, the band was great and we had a real good time together and with some of the local boys working in the bar.
All together it was a very successful and relaxing weekend :-) It may be a place were we return once again :-)
If you are not jealous yet from the story, check out the pictures:
Link didnt work right now, but check out our facebook and we put the link on the blog a.s.a.p. :-)
Monday, November 1, 2010
Munduk
Seminyak, October 31, 22:30
This weekend we went to Munduk, a small village up in the central mountains of Bali. On Friday afternoon the journey started and was partly the same as to Lovina, except for the last 45 min. Even though we where better prepared this time it was still very cold when we came high in the mountains. We had booked a room at Puri Alam Bali Bungalows, which supposed to have good views (according to the Lonely Planet), well the view was absolutely stunning, what a panorama! And this for the nice price of 200.000 rp (16euro) a night. Rino now finally has his KITAS (workingpermit), witch gives a lot of discounts/local prices on many many things. We are very happy with this little passportlike book! :-)
Unfortunately it started raining very hard when we arrived at the temple, the rain didn’t seem to stop but with a borrowed umbrella we walked through the temple and could take a closer look. The road back took longer then we thought, mostly because it rained so hard. We even warmed and dried up at a restaurant with a nice fireplace and hot chocolate and tea. :-) It’s funny, we felt really cold and were happy with this fireplace, as you are in the winter back home after skiing in Norway or skating in NL, almost forgetting that it was maybe 20 degrees. No! we are not complaining, it was just an unexpected experience on Bali ;-) In the evening we had diner at another close by hotel and played some cards and red a book in our room. Munduk is a very quiet, small village with nothing further happening at night and no streetlights. We had a very nice time until Iris saw a huge spider, which Rino could not kill because he climbed al the way up to the roof. Luckily our room was a family room and had 2 bedrooms, so we moved to the other one.
The next day we arranged a guide who would bring us to 2 waterfalls. The first waterfall was 30m high and the second 50m. In total it was a 2 hours walk through a beautiful forest, with lots of interesting plantations. Cacao trees, avocado, banana, pineapple, Balinese fruits and many more. The waterfalls where spectacular and we where both very happy we took this trip. It was good for body and soul and for the eye. We needed a weekend like this now, to see and explore a bit and get some exercise. When we arrived back to the hotel we where exhausted and took an early lunch. Unfortunately it started raining again very hard and very long so therefore we decided to go home directly instead of taking an alternative route, which would have taken us through rice fields, coffee plantations and another 2 waterfalls, but we will take that route next time. The great thing is that we still have so much time to see everything we want of the island!
When we arrived back home we could finally switch to the room we wanted in the villa. Rino was trying whether the locks worked and eventually it ended up that we locked ourselves out of the room and we had to break the window in the door to unlock it, not so smart! But luckily these thinks don’t costs much on Bali ;-)
See here our pictures of the weekend on our Picasa. http://picasaweb.google.com/fromeynfotos7/Munduk?authkey=Gv1sRgCLqu-9zC4IWnEw#
Sunday, October 24, 2010
The Weekends
The last few weeks we experienced a bit what our ‘normal’ Balinese weeks are looking like. Iris going to Ubud for 3 days a week and I’m working at the hotel from Monday till Friday. So the weekends are the most existing times and they are great ☺
1t/m4 October, Lovina
Because I arranged an early shift for Friday and a late shift for Monday, we could go away for a long weekend and had planned a trip to Lovina. Together on 1 scooter with a big bag we set of for Lovina around 4.30pm and expected the drive to be around 2-2½hours. Only after a half an hour we got a flat tire, luckily we were at a spot where immediately a Balinese could help us directly and after 20-30min. we where back on the road (cost only Rp10.000, less than €1). Another half hour later it started raining like crazy, so it was raincoats on and driving slowly. When the rain finally stopped it started to get dark and we did not inspect the route properly because we where heading towards the mountains. With half wet clothes it was very cold and it was very dark in the mountains. From what we had heard later it was not so smart of us to drive in the mountains while it is dark as a tourist and not knowing the road, because if you have a flat tire up there there’s nobody to help and there can be a unsafe area in the dark with animals and sometimes aggressive citizens against tourist.
After more than 3 hours we finally arrived in Lovina and had a nice beer in the small town. We booked hotel Angsoka (http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g297699-d1220837-r82983748-Angsoka_Hotel-Singaraja_Bali.html#CHECK_RATES_CONT see here our review on TripAdvisor) for only Rp125.000 a night (around €10). It was a basic hotel with a lovely pool. The weekend was supposed to be a super relaxed one and it was. We got to know some nice people and went out to diner with them twice. Furthermore we chilled and we chilled some more. On the way back we visited the temple Danau Bratan, which is one of the most photographed temples of Bali. http://picasaweb.google.com/fromeynfotos6/Lovina13Okt?authkey=Gv1sRgCOjG7qqNxsKjkgE#
8-10 October
This weekend we stayed in Seminyak, tried our surfboard witch we just had bought and chilled a lot at the beach. We had some nice lunches and diners in the area and we had our first evening walk at the beach (Iris feet is finally on the better hand). I relist my head from my already too long hair and that felt great.
15-17 October (Sanur)
This weekend, on Sunday, we had to move to the villa and say goodbye to, what we already feel is our house. We could not go away for the whole weekend, so we went to Sanur witch is only a half an hour drive. The beaches in Sanur are great and the water is slow and clear compared to the big breaks in Seminyak. We had a very relaxing day and rented sunbeds at the beach from a hotel so we could also use their swimming pool ☺. In the morning we had booked a restaurant, because of their good reviews on TripAdvisor. We wanted to try a somewhat ‘chique’ restaurant for reasonable prices and this was the first ranked for Sanur. The restaurant was totally worth is, we both loved the food, the setting, the staff and the atmosphere (http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g297700-d1443303-r84165160-Kayu_Manis-Sanur_Bali.html our review on TripAdvisor). For less than €15 p.p. we eat at what we think was a almost star levelled restaurant.
22-24 October
This weekend we stayed at home as well. We wanted to see more of the area around the villa were we now live and we where also invited to go to a wedding of a colleague of mine. The Saturday started not good with bad weather, but in the afternoon we went to the beach anyway and stayed at a lovely Warung, with sunbeds and cheap food and drinks. In the late afternoon we headed back home to make ourselves ready for the wedding. We where doubting to go to the wedding, because I hardly knew this colleague but my other colleagues luckily convinced us. Unfortunately the weather was very bad at the wedding and it was raining a lot and hard. It was a Christian wedding with typical Balinese traditions and goood food, we had a nice time, especially with my colleagues. The wedding couple was dressed up very beautifully and so where their parents and a lot of other guests (mostly family). This wedding was nothing like we know in Norway/The Netherlands, but also for my colleagues this was an uncommon wedding, because there are hardly any Christians on Bali. The wedding couple was sitting on a kind of podium together with their parents and there where performances of family members. The rest was sitting in front of the podium and could enjoy the food and entertainment. We soon of course hope to experience a ‘real’ Balinese Hindu wedding.
1t/m4 October, Lovina
Because I arranged an early shift for Friday and a late shift for Monday, we could go away for a long weekend and had planned a trip to Lovina. Together on 1 scooter with a big bag we set of for Lovina around 4.30pm and expected the drive to be around 2-2½hours. Only after a half an hour we got a flat tire, luckily we were at a spot where immediately a Balinese could help us directly and after 20-30min. we where back on the road (cost only Rp10.000, less than €1). Another half hour later it started raining like crazy, so it was raincoats on and driving slowly. When the rain finally stopped it started to get dark and we did not inspect the route properly because we where heading towards the mountains. With half wet clothes it was very cold and it was very dark in the mountains. From what we had heard later it was not so smart of us to drive in the mountains while it is dark as a tourist and not knowing the road, because if you have a flat tire up there there’s nobody to help and there can be a unsafe area in the dark with animals and sometimes aggressive citizens against tourist.
After more than 3 hours we finally arrived in Lovina and had a nice beer in the small town. We booked hotel Angsoka (http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g297699-d1220837-r82983748-Angsoka_Hotel-Singaraja_Bali.html#CHECK_RATES_CONT see here our review on TripAdvisor) for only Rp125.000 a night (around €10). It was a basic hotel with a lovely pool. The weekend was supposed to be a super relaxed one and it was. We got to know some nice people and went out to diner with them twice. Furthermore we chilled and we chilled some more. On the way back we visited the temple Danau Bratan, which is one of the most photographed temples of Bali. http://picasaweb.google.com/fromeynfotos6/Lovina13Okt?authkey=Gv1sRgCOjG7qqNxsKjkgE#
8-10 October
This weekend we stayed in Seminyak, tried our surfboard witch we just had bought and chilled a lot at the beach. We had some nice lunches and diners in the area and we had our first evening walk at the beach (Iris feet is finally on the better hand). I relist my head from my already too long hair and that felt great.
15-17 October (Sanur)
This weekend, on Sunday, we had to move to the villa and say goodbye to, what we already feel is our house. We could not go away for the whole weekend, so we went to Sanur witch is only a half an hour drive. The beaches in Sanur are great and the water is slow and clear compared to the big breaks in Seminyak. We had a very relaxing day and rented sunbeds at the beach from a hotel so we could also use their swimming pool ☺. In the morning we had booked a restaurant, because of their good reviews on TripAdvisor. We wanted to try a somewhat ‘chique’ restaurant for reasonable prices and this was the first ranked for Sanur. The restaurant was totally worth is, we both loved the food, the setting, the staff and the atmosphere (http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g297700-d1443303-r84165160-Kayu_Manis-Sanur_Bali.html our review on TripAdvisor). For less than €15 p.p. we eat at what we think was a almost star levelled restaurant.
22-24 October
This weekend we stayed at home as well. We wanted to see more of the area around the villa were we now live and we where also invited to go to a wedding of a colleague of mine. The Saturday started not good with bad weather, but in the afternoon we went to the beach anyway and stayed at a lovely Warung, with sunbeds and cheap food and drinks. In the late afternoon we headed back home to make ourselves ready for the wedding. We where doubting to go to the wedding, because I hardly knew this colleague but my other colleagues luckily convinced us. Unfortunately the weather was very bad at the wedding and it was raining a lot and hard. It was a Christian wedding with typical Balinese traditions and goood food, we had a nice time, especially with my colleagues. The wedding couple was dressed up very beautifully and so where their parents and a lot of other guests (mostly family). This wedding was nothing like we know in Norway/The Netherlands, but also for my colleagues this was an uncommon wedding, because there are hardly any Christians on Bali. The wedding couple was sitting on a kind of podium together with their parents and there where performances of family members. The rest was sitting in front of the podium and could enjoy the food and entertainment. We soon of course hope to experience a ‘real’ Balinese Hindu wedding.
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