THAILAND

 

THAILAND 2023

24th of January

Leaving Luxembourg at the airport, transit in Munich for a few hours and arrival in Bangkok on the 25^th

 25^th of January

We get picked up at the airport and driven to our hotel, Chatrium Riverside Hotel. We have a room at the 31st floor, spectacular view over the river Chao Phraya. 

We take a little stroll through the streets, take a couple of pictures at our first little wat, get some food and head back to the hotel to sleep off our jet lag.

26^th of January

We take the boat to Sathorn pier, change to get to wat Arun (taking a few pictures) and cross over with a small ferry towards Grand Palace. Although we have been to the place it still holds the same fascination: golden buildings ,large statues, all glitter and gold. The classical tour includes a sight of the most important emerald buddha, the big inclined buddha in wat Pho, oldest and largest in Bangkok. From here we walk to the flower market, admire heaps of freshly cut orchids and marigold flowers (for the temple offerings). Take the boat at Monumental bridge pier, to Sathorn and back. We rest at the hotel’s pool and have a disappointing dinner later on at the hotel. But the setting is beautiful, we can watch the boats drive past, very nice with the lights on….take a last 2 hours’ walk through Bangkok’s streets and drop into bed.

27th of January

8:30, meet our private guide at the lobby, called Nun, a very lively and sympathetic person. We drive up to Bang Pa In, the king’s old summer palace "Wehart Chamrun Throne Hall". Water ponds, gardens, old buildings, some in Chinese style, a very quiet and peaceful place after 2 hectic days in Bangkok. Lunch at a local street restaurant, in Pat Thau. 

Wehart Chamrun Throne Hall

After that we continue towards Ayutthaya, the old imperial capital with its famous ruins. Since there has been some flooding a month ago, a local main festivity takes place now, a month later, just at our arrival. How lucky we are! We visit Ayutthaya in a very calm atmosphere: many old stupas and buddha images, some of them really large like Wat Phra Mongkhon Bophit. It is very pleasant to walk around, with a feeling of being “surrounded by history”. In the evening we take a funny dinner in the streets, trying to order food with hands and signs since people’s English is non existing. After that we cannot stop walking through the extremely crowded streets, endless food stalls and street sellers, flowers, decorations with lights and sculptures, open air concerts, you name it. Very happy to witness this festival we head back to the hotel for a deserved rest and sleep.

28th of January

Quick breakfast and off we are driving towards Lopuri. Here we find some ruins of Prang Sam Yot, a place totally invaded by monkeys. The beasts live here, mainly on the temple food offerings. With time they became quite a nuisance since they steal food and personal belongings. Hotels and restaurants have been abandoned for that reason. 

The wat’s prang is built in Khmer style, it reminds us of Cambodia’s Byonne temple. Armed with bamboo sticks we finish our tour unmolested and drive on to Chainat. Here we visit a very local temple (not a single tourist) , Wat Thammarnun Worawihan and enjoy the atmosphere: hear the monks’ prayer and chanting, get a monk’s blessing and continue to Phitsanulok. 

Here Wat Phra Sri Rattana Nahatat shelters the famous bronze budhha (600 years old, very much revered). Outside of the temple is a nice little market, we taste some food and goodies. Drive on to Sukhotai, Sriwilai Sukhotai Hotel. 

29th of January

Early morning, off to visit Sukhotai’s Historical Park. In this place we can walk around many old buildings and ruins, with bigger and smaller “chedis” (pagodas), some designed in Khmer and Hindu style. We see buddhas in all kind of postures, standing, sitting, lying or on the ever repeated lotus flower base…Wat Chang Lom with its carved elephants, Wat Si Chum and a 15 m tall buddha, Wat Mahatat, the largest one Wat Sasi, Wat Si Sawai….we almost lose track of the places and names..

We like it here, walking around leisurely in a serene atmosphere and the feeling of being surrounded by history.

A nice swim at the hotel’s pool rinses off the heat and the tiredness…

30th of January

On our way to Lampang we visit a temple built in Burmese style: a lot of wood carving and natural color paintings on the walls and columns. To enter it we pass a spectacular Nga gate (a kind of dragon/serpent). 

We can enjoy the canon ball tree flower, the fruit really looks like a canon ball but the flower of it is even more impressive: the smell of it is just overwhelming!!

Lunch in a very nice garden restaurant then on to Lampang.

Here we refrain from the touristic, traditional horse carriage ride, we have mercy on the tiny horses. Instead we take a little stroll over the local market, with special meats (fried frogs displayed, ant eggs, a very luxurious treat), various fruit and vegetables, some quite exotic to us.

Get to the riverside Lodge Hotel and enjoy walking around its garden, pond and little tracks. Lilies and lotus flowers are just too photogenic!

31st of January

Today we drive up to Pu Yak Mountain. In Chae Ham we have to change the car to a 4x4 since the road is very steep. Arriving we start our climb/walk to the wat that is built right on the ridge. The stairs are endless but it is worth the while: the little temple buildings are really right on the rock with fantastic views over the valley. 

We take our time to enjoy the place until we drive on to Chiang Mai. Our hotel Bodhi Serene is in the centre of Chiang Mai. We leave the “square”, cross the river and enjoy a long stroll over Chiang Mai’s night market. We buy some little souvenirs and mangoes. 

Return to the hotel, dine on our delicious mangoes and rest. 

1st of February

Today we shall explore Chiang Mai on our own. The temperature is very mild and it is very pleasant to walk around. We start our visit with the huge Wat Chedi Luang. The temple holds an impressive Naga entrance with elephant sculptures at the base of the main building. Some of the smaller temple buildings are made of wood with fine carvings and many glimmering stones. We can see a nice, inclined Buddha, too. Wat Phra Sing is an eye catcher with its gold: the main pagoda is all covered in a golden layer, with huge elephant heads on the 4 sides. 

Bright gold in the blazing sun, quite stunning. Each of the temples has a single /or a long row of big bells (you can ring them),these give a nice sound to the sacred surroundings. In the background we can listen to the monks chanting, blessing their food, nice addition, makes it all very atmospheric. We continue with our city visit, peeping quickly into various temples, always hunting for nice pictures. It starts getting really hot, we head back to the hotels and get some drinks and refreshments. We pick up the visit after that, get to the day market Ton Lamyai and across Chinatown. The road is busy with little food stalls and street vendors. Back in the hotel we rest and have a shower. 

Early evening, we leave for the Khan Tòk festival: in the old cultural centre we’ve reserved a show dinner with live dance performance. We walk to the place crossing Wualai road, the famous silver ware street. In the centre all is neatly organised, the staff very friendly. Dinner quality is a bit poor but we enjoy the performance, taking many pictures and filming some of the dances. Back to the hotel and packing up for the other day. 

2nd of February

We leave Chiang Mai towards the highlands. Quick stop at the local market. After that we start climbing up the hills on a hairpin road. We leave the car behind us and start our walk: coffee and tea plantations at these heights, dry forest. It is very hazy; we cannot see much of the mountain range. At a tiny location in the middle of nowhere we get a little lunch, prepared by the guide. After that we follow a single trail on the mountain ridge and get back to the forest a bit later. We can see more coffee and some local plants, like the local figs, hanging on the tree stem rather than on branches. I climb up into a tree (bamboo ladder) to see how they gather wild honey. The trees are very large, and the forest is dry. In the end we steadily descent a long trail until we hit the street that brings us back to the village and the car. We drive to “the Cocotier”, a lovely resort in the middle of rice paddies. We like the place ,get dinner and enjoy a little “digestion” walk with very mild temperatures. 

3rd of February

After breakfast we get ready for some paddling on the Mae Ngat Damlake in Sri Lanna National Park. We have a double sit-on-top kayak and start with a hearty speed. The lake is flat without a single ripple, it is hazy around us. We pass some fisher farms, all on poles, and some floating holiday cabins. Arriving at the floating restaurant, we dry out and get some relaxed lunch enjoying the sun. We decide to paddle all the way back instead of taking a long tail boat, much to the despair of our guide who struggles to keep up with us….Back in the hotel we change into dry clothes, take a rest and head off for a nice stroll through the rice paddies. In the village people are extremely friendly, all smiles and hellos. 

After a delicious dinner we pack up for the other day.

4th of February

Today we are up rather early since we booked a little cycling trip. Surprise, surprise, we get good quality mountain bikes with a working changing gear. We start on little roads and eventually single trails: all through the rice paddies, we see big fields of peanut, lemongrass, pineapple, mango trees, you name it. We stop at a craft's shop for funerals/temple décor and ornaments: out of very light wood, paper and a glue-like material they build flashy shrines, decorated with elephants and some other animals. These get burnt during funerals or monk celebrations as offerings. Next we see a local crematory: in the open the coffin gets burnt while family and friends sit on little benches under a roof, having food and respectfully waiting and exchanging condolences. We cycle on enjoying all the little rarities that we discover, like a typical haystack, made of rice stems. On our way we get to a new temple, Wat Ban Den, which is very popular. The place is very colorful, with Nagas, peacocks, elephants in different hues and shape. Endless buddha images, all shiny and glittering in the afternoon sun. 

From here we continue by car, bikes stored away in the back, to see some waterfalls in the NL. Before reaching the waterfall we follow a little wooden track to the source of the river. It is very quiet and serene here, almost mystical. The waterfalls have a lime stone bed, with little “steps”, we can climb up and down right in the water. 

Back at the hotel we check out and leave towards Chiang Rai. On the way we see Ping River and Kok River meandering through the valley. We buy some fruit on a local market and watch the production of sticky bamboo, a little bamboo rod filled with sticky rice and coconut milk and roasted over open fire. Arrive in Chiang Rai at the posh “Le Meridien”. 

5th of February

Again, up to the mountains to see the long neck hill tribes. Women wear brass rings (in one piece, can be up to 3 kg and more) around their neck and below the knees as well. They somehow believe this is protecting them from evil spirits. Originally these tribes are from Myanmar, moved to the Thai mountains to live in villages, selling their souvenirs and arts and crafts. The village and the traditional clothes are rather colorful, although the whole thing is quite touristic. 

We drive on to the golden triangle of Laos, Thailand and Myanmar. This 3 border area is famous for the drug smuggling and  opium trade. Today people from the 3 countries criss cross the borders, although during covid times a lot was closed or banned. We have a boat trip on Mekong river, along the borders of the 3 countries…

After that back to Chiang Rai by car to get to Wat Rong Khun, the famous white temple. This building is new and its artist created a special atmosphere: all in white and silver (some gold, too) thousands of tiny glittering mirror pieces sparkle in the sunlight, an amazing sight in the blazing sun! 

Drive back to Chiang Mai, right on time to enjoy a long stroll over Sunday market! “Walking street”, as they call it, no cars but many stalls with vendors selling all kind of souvenirs and products.

Another night at Bodhi Serene Hotel.

6th of February

Early transfer to the airport for our Bangkok flight. Farewell to Nun, our terrific guide. Arrive in Bangkok and immediately get to the Central train Station. We have some spare time, spend it outside reading and enjoying the sun. We get some food in the station and get on the night train. We will spend the night in this small compartment, double deck beds, tiny sink, but comfortable enough. We read and doze off quite soon, the rattling of the rails having their calming effect….

7th of February

At Suratani rail station we get picked up and transferred to Kaosok Camp resort. This is a place with cabins made of bamboo and a tent. We have mosquito nets which is helpful since we are quite in the middle of the jungle. We have a walk, explore the area and plan the next day. 

8th of February

We drive to an elephant camp, where I have the pleasure to bathe and scrub one of those gentle and intelligent beasts in a river. The animal wears no chain, the Mahut has none of these nasty sticks with a hook, the animal just follows the man’s lead and listens to his voice. Very nice experience.

After that we get a little visit of a rather modest “monkey” temple, we have seen many more monkeys in other places… A ride in a rubber canoe is a bit disappointing, too, since we are not allowed to paddle on our own. But the river and the landscape are nice. 

9th of February

Today we are off for a little jungle hike in Kao Sok National Park. This is the typical rainforest in dry season: heavy air, dampness and morning mist, very lush and green vegetation, huge banana leaves, palm leaves, elephant ears, all in XXL size. Not many creatures to see except some big spiders, lizards and a funny flying lizard.

Back at the hotel we have a quick shower and food, pack up a small bag and leave the main luggage in the hotel. Off we are in a longtail boat towards Chiewlarn Lake. 

This protected place reminds us of Phang Na Bay, but these limestone towers are much higher and mightier. The boat trip is fantastic, the landscape breath-taking. We arrive at Laguna Chiewlarn, a “floating” hotel with little cabins that hold one room right on the lake. The setting is stunning, and the room is neat and snug, we love it here. We grab a double sit-on-top kayak and paddle around till sunset. 

10th of February

6:30, get up to see a spectacular sunrise: Giant limestone rock formations, covered by heavy greeneries, misty clouds hanging like cotton wool in the treetops, all in a soft pink light from the rising sun, fantastic!!! Get a long tail boat for an early morning ride, best chances to spot some wild animals. All around us exotic sounds from birds, insects, frogs, some monkeys and…?? See some monkeys, even a rare kind, but in the next creek we watch an elephant mother bathing and drinking together with her baby, to good a sight to be true.

After breakfast we take another long tail boat, have a little trekking in the rainforest and visit a cave. We leave the lake with a boat and get our luggage from the former hotel. On the way we pass a lorry with a special load: 2 elephants ride in the back of the truck for a visit to the vet?? We change vans and, in the end, arrive in Phuket Katathani Resort. It has been a long drive with traffic jams, we are exhausted and enjoy a nice dinner at a small Indian restaurant. 

11th of February

Today we decide to have a relaxed time with pool, beach and no specific program. A little later in the day we take a long walk to Sabai Corner, starting from the hotel, steep hill up, get through date palm plantations and find a lovely single trail through jungle vegetation towards the coast. Some parts of the walk lead over a street, but we can cope with that. 

Shower and dinner and rest.

12th of February

We make it an early breakfast since we want to hike to the giant Buddha statue that is looming over Phuket Bay, like the “Patron Saint” of this place. A taxi drops us off at the starting point of the track. Again, we’ve chosen a steep single trail through the jungle and its dense vegetation. It is a bit strenuous and we think our reward is to get to a lonely place with no tourists. Bad mistake, it is very busy with tourists since there is a road that leads straight up to the statue. After our visit we walk all the way back to the resort. Tired but satisfied we have a shower and dinner and deserved rest.

13th of February

Last full day in Phuket. We certainly are keen on exploring it to the maximum: we rent a motorbike, and leave towards Kathu waterfalls, some 40 km to go on the bike. Gaston found a nice hike in this area and we plan to do it.
The ride on the bike is nice and a little bit thrilling, considering the traffic and the left hand driving…We find the village and start our hike with a sheer endless and steep ascent. A single
trail is leading us through a very lush greenery, giant palm leaves, jack fruits, pineapples and much more. 12 km up and down, navigating on a small path… So far it has been rather tiring but absolutely stunning. At one point we are a bit worried to find our way, cutting across the forest on a faint track. In the end the waterfall is non existent (this is after all almost the end of the dry season). But we can finish the trail and safely return to the bike. We ride back through heavy traffic, suffering from heat and tiredness. Gaston holds on bravely, we fill up the bike and return it. After that a well-deserved dinner and a good rest. 

14th of February

12:00 o’clock, we get picked up for our transfer to Surathani railway station to take the night train towards Bangkok.

In Surathani we store the luggage safely and enjoy a long stroll over the local market. We like it here, there are hardly tourists. Get a snack and go back to the trains to find our coach. The air-con is at a freezing temperature, we put on all our clothes. This will be a chilly night, since the conductor did not react when I politely asked to turn it off….What a pity to ruin the experience out of sheer stupidity!

We survive all the way to Bangkok

15th of February

In Bangkok we get a transfer to Chatrium Hotel for the day use. Gratefully we tug in at the breakfast buffet and enjoy a nice shower. Unfortunately the weather is not cooperating: it is pouring with rain, thunder and lightning and non-stop showers. 

We get our rain gear on and decide against all odds to spend our last day outside in the city.

Taking the express boat to PrahArtit road, Kao San and New Siam, our first guesthouse some 25 years ago, a bit nostalgic but nowhere else to go since we have done a proper sightseeing at the beginning of the holidays. 

We find it all changed, of course, the guesthouse in ruins and the rest all new and modern. We stroll over Silom road (the gold street) all the way up to the Japanese part of the town. Here we turn and head back to the hotel.

We get all ready for our home flight at 23:30. 

INDONESIA Java, Flores, Komodo, Bali

INDONESIA  2019

 

Mt. Bromo

Friday, 14 th of June/ Saturday, 15th of June

 Starting our trip in Luxembourg, early morning at 06:00 o’clock to Frankfurt, Singapore and then to Yogyakarta. In Singapore we have to run to get to the connecting gate, but all turns out well, we arrive in time to catch the plane and land in Java some hours later. Our friendly female guide, Sri, has been waiting for us and we start immediately towards Wonosobo. The drive is a bit of a wild one: many awkward manoeuvres , a lot of traffic, in between hundreds of motorbikes, all left hand driving, we are glad we did not choose self driving…….We have a well deserved break with the visit of Candi Munduk (Borobudur temple compounds), to get out of the car and get our minds diverted from traffic and driving. The temple is nice, we also venture out to Mendut Buddhist Monastery, a very pleasant place where we get busy with photo shooting. At the end of the afternoon we arrive in Kresna Hotel Wonosobo, get a refreshing shower and plan our first dinner in Asia Restaurant. Before that, we get some money from the ATM, and here we are proud millionaires with 5.000.000 Rupias. Handling the money with all those zeroes asks for  some attention. Tomorrow we shall be picked up around 07:00 to go to the Djeng Plateau.

Sunday, 16^th of June

Breakfast at 06:00 o’clock and off to the Djieng Plateau. We cannot believe our sheer luck: the morning mists lift ,the clouds thin out and the sky breaks open to leave us with the stunning view of Gunnung Sikunir…in full sunshine. What a treat; beautiful landscapes with tea, tobacco, coffee, rice and a lot of vegetables, all under a blue sky!

Arjuna Complex lies there at 2000 m ‘s height, with various little temples from the 8+9^th century. We learn that the lingam, oval/egg shaped stone, is the male symbol, which is worshipped, the yoni , square like , the female symbol. The temples are simple and quite modest, but the general atmosphere plus the landscape are fantastic: the locals are terribly nice and extremely keen on taking pictures with us. We become all of a sudden a very wanted object: being the only white people at the temple complex, people enjoy the photo shooting with us and we get lovely pictures with old temples at the background, laughing children, colourful head coverings, all too good!

After Arjuna we continue to the volcanic attractions of Kawah Sikidang., the crater. The stench is rather strong and there are continually little sulphurical eruptions, unpleasant even with the masks that we wear. The locals have turned the place into a kind of “Fairground attraction”, not at all to our taste. Sri shows us a cinnamon tree, we can taste its bark.

We continue our trip, facing some terrible traffic jams, involving hundreds of scooters, buses, vans and lorries. The small serpentine road gets crammed by all sort of vehicles. Finally back in Wonosobo, we get a delicious lunch and a taste of Kuni Saram, a drink with tamarind, cucumber and brown sugar.

After that we are ready for our Borobudur temple visit, a Buddhist temple in Java. Right at the foot of the temple some life performance, dancers in colourful costumes, the tiny bells attached to the costumes give the place a special sound and touch. The dance looks a bit “Maya like”….The complex is crowded by locals, and again we turn into models: people give us friendly hugs while they take our picture, all religions are mixed, laughing faces of beautiful children, the general atmosphere is at its best! We discover our first snake fruit , the skin of the fruit providing the name… In Yogyakarta dinner at an Indonesian restaurant, sleep at Phoenix Hotel

Monday, 17^th of June

8:00, after a terrific and rich breakfast, we leave towards Prambanan, Java’s and Indonesia’s main temple, from the Hindu period, in honour of Brahma, Vishnu and Krishna. The sight is absolutely jaw-dropping and we almost get a mystical feeling approaching the huge complex. There is the typical Hindu wealth of sculptural detail to discover on every square meter….On top of that the Javanese people are smiling, happy and extremely friendly: the story is repeating itself, we take plenty of pictures with laughing children, all clad in colourful clothes, all keen on having us on the picture, too. And Alain “over-towering” it all, like the gentle giant….there are Banyan trees (the sacred Buddha tree) Rain trees (a large and wide crown) and Mahogany trees (a tall tree with long branches). 

After a while we turn our back on the temple and drive to the walled city palace, the Kraton of Yogyakarta. Yogya has been a symbol of resistance to the colonial rule. The Sultan supported rebels against the Dutch occupation. As a result of that help, Yogya was granted the status of a special region. The Kraton itself is walled, holds various halls, pavilions and reception buildings. Several departments are dedicated to the different Sultans. On the whole a rather dull and dusty thing, nothing spectacular. We bravely suffer in silence till the end of the tour and head to one of Yogya’s special silver workshops. Here we admire the typical fine and filigree work, done by patient silversmiths who strain their eyesight and keep their hands very steady. I buy a lovely filigree ring.

After that we return to the hotel to pack our main luggage that will be transported to Jambang. ( the East of Java).

Tuesday, 18^th of June

The last night at the Phoenix Hotel was short: we have a very early breakfast at 05:30 , get a Becak (Javanese rickshaw) to get a ride to the railway station.

From here we catch the train that will lead us across the country, all the way to the East, to Jambang. The ride is nice, the train trip through the countryside is very pleasant with uncountable rice paddies, people working in them, barefoot in knee deep water. A lot of sugarcane fields, onions and some corn. The houses vary from rather shabby looking shacks and cabins to solid stone houses. As the landscape flies by we doze off from time to time… . At Mojokertor our driver picks us up and drives us to Tosari, where we get a lovely lunch.

From here another 1 ½ hour to get to Wonotoro,  the Jiwa Jawa Hotel, at the foot of Mount Bromo. The resort is very nice, we have a stroll around the complex. The place is literally littered by huge trumpet flowers that spread a lovely smell through the gardens. The hilarious “wash-your-bottom-toilet” is a scream, involving a lot of laughter, giggling and…some wet clothes! Dinner at the hotel

Wednesday, 19^th of June

Early birds again, we get up at a cruel 03:00 o’clock to leave with a 4x4 towards Mount Bromo. The street is already busy with people and alive. The traffic is merciless: jeeps, vans, scooters, pedestrians, you name it. The road is very bumpy and we hold on to anything we can grab in the car. Arriving at our destination we park behind the other countless jeeps and continue by foot, wondering how crammed the place will be. 

To our surprise Penanjakan (2770 m) , the view point, isn’t as bad as we expected. We join the rest of the crowd to wait for sunrise. While we do so, the cold creeps up from our feet to our back and everybody starts to shiver, awaiting impatiently the first sun rays. At 05:30 sharp, Matahari , the Eye of the Day, rises and golden beams start to tickle the ridge of the volcanoes. Breathtaking and stunning. The light and the colours change continuously and turns the volcanoes into beauties. After a long photo session we return to the car. From here, over the bumpy road again to the sea of sand. We start to walk to the foot of Bromo where a long staircase leads us up to the crater. After the staircase we end up face to face with the steaming, sulphurous guts of the volcano. The eerie walk through that sea of sand is rather hard on one’s breathing: the sand and the fine, black ashes of the volcano lift in endless clouds since people ride horses and scooters there, run around like mad shuffling up the dust that twists and twirls in the air. Everybody has some trouble breathing properly, and the height has its call on us, too. On the whole we could have skipped the dusty experience but the joy of that beautiful sunrise will stay as the most pleasant memory in our minds.

Back to the hotel, breakfast and pack up and off to Surabaya airport. Some lunch on the road and then catch the flight to Bali.

Here we arrive early night, at Keraton Jimbaran Resort, a rather chic place but the people less friendly than in Java. Dinner at the hotel.

Thursday, 20^th of June

Happy birthday Anita the Wanita (wanita=woman)! A little dip into the sea and off to the airport close by to catch the flight to Flores. Flying via Luang Bajo we land in Ende, stay at Kelimutu Ecolodge. Jimmy, our Flores guide, welcomes us and we start our long trip up the winding road. The landscape is rough, deep gorges and ravines, jungle vegetation. The serpentine road seems to be endless, we start feeling seasick.

Finally we arrive at the lodge and we make out a rather big difference between Bali and Flores standards. Our cabins are clean and close to a river. The stuff is nice and helps to get Anita a little birthday surprise with singing and some lovely fruits.

It is pitch dark around our cabins and the soft gurgling of the river nearby helps slipping into a sweet slumber…..But not for a long time:

Friday, 21rst of June

Get up at 3:30 to leave at 04:00 o’clock for the famous Kelimutu Lakes. It is a 40 minutes ride in the dark. Then we continue by foot, the path leading up to the viewpoint being well defined. The 3 lakes lumber in the dark, some mist already creeping up the slopes. We hope to see the lakes before everything is covered by some clouds and fog.

Around 5:30 we can see 2 lakes, both blueish coloured, the 3^rd one is already covered by mist. The lakes are famous for the variation of their colour: according to the mineral that dominates at a certain time, the colours can change from green to blue, red and black. Sunrise around 06:00 o’clock. The view is very nice . We return to our hotel and have a short visit of an original “Lio” house, we can enter and see how simple life is being lived in these houses. After that we leave towards Riung. On the way we can enjoy a rough landscape, deep gorges, jungle vegetation, giant fern-trees, rivers deep down in the valley. It looks quite untouched.

Beautiful terraces, the blue sky is reflected in the water….We drive on for a while and come to a beach with blue pebbles, a rest from volcano eruptions. Here we have a relaxed lunch, fresh fish for our friends…We continue after the break and the landscape is slowly changing: from green and wild into dry and bare, a wasteland, Savannah like. The Temperature rises. The road turns from bad to REALLY bad and we can only make slow progress. In Riung somebody picks us up to lead us to a Ngada village where we should see some tribal dancing. It is rather cold and we are not quite so eager to see this dance show.

The performance itself is rather modest, but the people are so nice and enthusiastic that we get carried away with them: in the end we wear their costumes, dance with them and have a lot of fun! There is a lot of laughing involved and some flirting by an old gentleman…..with a single tooth left in his mouth…Finally we get to our Hotel in Riung, Pondok Souverdi, a modest but clean place. We arrange for an excursion the other day, a snorkeling and swimming boat trip, get a funny and simple dinner (there are helpless apprentices running around…) and a deserved rest.

Saturday, 22^nd of June

Breakfast is simple, but sufficient. Antonio, the local guide, takes us on his boat to the 17 Islands Marine Park. On one of the islands some mangroves give shelter to hundreds of flying foxes who rest in the trees during daytime.

These mammals are harmless, feeding on fresh fruit. After that we get some nice snorkeling, seeing “old” friends like Clownfish, Angelfish, Triggerfish, Trumpet Fish, you name them…Some beautiful corals and big, oddly shaped sponges. Although the water is a bit cloudy it is a very pleasant moment. On the beach we get spoilt with a lovely lunch, barbecue of fresh fish, a lot of vegetables, fresh fruits, all delicious.

After our return to the land we leave for a visit of the Ngada tribe, Warusaba village. The roofs of the houses are amazing as well the arrangements of the whole village. The trip goes on, following the serpentine road with just so many bends…In Bajawa we stay at Sanian Hotel. The place is quite bare and simple and cold. Dinner at Lucas Restaurant.

Sunday, 23^rd of June

After some trouble to get breakfast going we leave for another visit of the Ngada tribe, Bena village. The houses with high and thatched roofs line up in 2 rows, some ceremonial places to see as well.

We have a nice stroll through the village taking plenty of pictures. Driving on we have a short break at “bamboo” forest, the light patches between the trees offer some nice pictures. On the road again, off to Air Pana Soa, the Hot Springs of the area. On the way we can admire Gunnung Inerie, an active volcano. In Aimere we have a quick taste of Arak, the local brandy made with a certain kind of palm trees. Arak is not really our favourite, so we continue the trip until we stop close to the rice fields. Here we get out and walk up to the workers,(all women) to watch them plant each single rice plant by HAND, standing knee deep in brown and bracken water for 10 hours minimum. We are very impressed, never thought that growing rice might be such hard work!

Last but not least a stop and a walk at Ranamese lake and river. Unfortunately it is already rather late, dusk falling already. We finish the day in Ruteng, Santa Maria Hotel, an old convent , still run by nuns. It is clean but the rooms are extremely tiny. We get some nice dinner at Spring Hill and try to sleep in our small rooms.

Monday, 24^th of June

Off from the convent and its modest breakfast to a visit of the Manggarai Tribe’s village, the famous round houses. In the main house (chief’s house) we get some explanations how they organise life in the village. We drive on to Lingko Cara (near the village of Cancar) to get a look at the “spiderweb ricefields”.We climb some stairs to get a splendid view from the top: below us a rice plain arranged in an unusual way, namely like a spiderweb. These plains are the rice reservoir of Flores, as far as we can look anything but rice paddies.

After that a long and winding road towards Labuan Bajo. Here in Bintang Flores Hotel we meet Ervish, our guide who explains the procedure for the coming days on Komodo Islands.

Tuesday, 25^th of June

At 08:00 o’clock Bonaventura the guide picks us up, and leads us to the harbour. Here we get on our boat Fadaelo and leave the small port. We have a lovely snorkeling time, with some current but a lot of sea life under the water’s surface. Then we sail on to Rinca Island to have a little trek and a first sight of the Komodo warans, the dragons! It is late in the day, the animals are dozing off lazily in the shade. The wind is rather strong by now and we return to the boat. Here we get a lovely lunch and a nice dragon fruit cocktail. Late afternoon the wind dies down and we can see some dolphins, they actually chase the boat… We cross over to Kalong Island right at dusk, when the flying foxes leave their shelter to get some food. Hundreds of them in the air, quite impressive! A last swim and after that a great dinner after sunset. Bonaventura chats with us for quite a while, we ask for some manta watching and have to see what the weather brings the other day. Off to the cabins where the lights are cut off to save electric power.

Tuesday 25^th of June 

06:45 o’clock, we are sailing already and get our breakfast. We plan another trekking and some more snorkeling today. We hope the sea will be calm enough to see some mantas.

Komodo island is nice on early morning, we see some Warans, all in the forest and more active than the other day. Some Cacadus and a tiny flying lizard, not much more to see (under the pontoon bridge a small black tipped reef shark). Snorkeling at Pink Beach is nice, turtle and colourful fishes…..We sail on with the main boat, have lunch aboard and approach Manta Point. And we are lucky: the captain calls, he has sighted some mantas (one can see them below the surface). We rush to the dinghy with mask and fins and come to the spot: we see their beautiful and elegant bodies just below the water and jump in.

Snorkeling next to them is wonderful although pretty tough, with an elegant flick of their fin they are faster than we can swim at full speed. We see several of them, different sizes, one of them probably an old male, quite large! Back on the boat we are happy and tired.

Our stay on the Fadaelo comes soon to an end, we are back in the Bintang Hotel, do some laundry and sort things out for the last week in Bali.

Thursday, 27^th of June

Today late breakfast and the 4 of us doing a briefing how to plan and organise our last days in Bali. Then taking the plane to Denpasar and driving on to Ubud. There is more traffic than we expected and we arrive rather late in our Hotel Wapa di Ume. From here we organise some nice excursions.

Friday, 28^th of June

07:00 o’clock, we have an early morning walk with the hotel guide. It is nice and gives us a first impression of the area around. After our breakfast we take the shuttle bus to Ubud’s centre. From here we start our “rice field walk”. The views are nice, there are only a few scooters using the single trail and a few pedestrians. The irrigation system for the rice paddies is very interesting, rice growing in general involving a lot of work, all done by hand, or with the water buffalo’s help. We continue towards the Monkey Forest Sanctuary. This is a place with wild and abundant nature around temples, monkeys running everywhere, giving the whole reserve an “Indiana Jones” look. We are among many other people, the forest is busy with tourists but the place has its charm all the same.

In the evening we get a nice pizza for a change…

Saturday, 29^th of June

07:00 o’clock a quick breakfast and after that off to the East. We arrive at Besakih after 1 ½ hours’ drive. Although we brought pareos and scarves to wear we have to wear some sarongs on top of all that clothing and look rather ridiculous. Besakih is Bali’s main temple and tourists are made to pay for EVERYTHING: scams and irritations all around, we are almost wishing to have skipped the complex altogether.

But we keep our dignity, complete the visit and the tour. Next place to visit is Tirtagangga Water palace. Again the palace is overrun by tourists, a pity since we see the potential of taking beautiful pictures. Again we keep our chin up and bear it good naturally and try to find some spots empty of Chinese “models” taking hundreds of pictures from each others….Before our return to Ubud we see some rice fields, right after harvest, not so much greenery. But we can watch parts of a thanksgiving ceremony (ritual after harvest).

Back in busy Ubud we walk the Campulan Ridge Walk, a trail right on the ridge offering some views to both sides of the valley.

Dinner at restaurant Tropical

Sunday, 30^th of June

Early breakfast; the driver from Sobek-Adventure picks us up and we are off to the North. The sky is clear, we can see Mount Agung (the highest), Mount Batur (smoking) and Mount Abang. We have another coffee and get our bikes: they are pretty good quality and we get helmets and gloves, too. The luxury of this ride is the fact that we will do downhill, not a mountain bike version, but a soft descent, all the way down back to the car. Since we hardly push into the pedal, we can watch the landscape gliding by. 

Our female guide is very good, she shows us original houses, private family temples, explains about birth and funeral rituals, all held in these temples. Kitchens are very basic with gas and a coal stove. –We ride on , eventually on single trails leading us through the woods and the fields. We stop at various temples (shortly) and come to a Luwak Coffee farm right in the jungle. The Luwak is an animal (a bit weasel like) that swallows the whole coffee bean, the bean runs through its digestive system, gets evacuated the “natural” way which gives an extra taste to the bean ( the digestion liquids do their work here). The beans get of course cleaned, boiled and peeled after the “pooh-moment”. The whole procedure turns the Luwak coffee into the most expensive coffee in the world. We get a taste of different teas and the Luwak coffe (“ca-pooh-ccino….). Interesting experience. We ride on with our bikes and Suki, the guide, leads us through beautiful rice fields, we sheer cannot get enough of these views. At the end of the ride we get a nice lunch and return to Ubud. We do some souvenir shopping and enjoy a nice massage at the hotel.

Dinner and packing.

Monday, 1rst of July

At 9:00 0’clock we get a transfer lift by Asian trails towards Munduk. The guide is nice and we arrange our return drive with him. (Munduk- Jimbaran).

We get to Munduk,

 Hotel Puri Lumbung Cottages. Here we get a small map and organise a trek on our own: we plan a round trip to the 3 waterfalls. 1) Red Coral Waterfall, very nice and rather big, 2) Labuan Kebo Waterfall, also very nice and reached by a long descent of many many stairs, 3)Laangen Waterfall. On the whole we are rather amazed at the waterfalls’ sizes and the waterflow. To be honest we had expected a miserable trickle of water and these flows are just stunning! From the last waterfall we try to return to the hotel, get a bit lost and confused, but in the end we find some small trails (still used by the scooters), through a luxuriant landscape and arrive safely at the hotel. Sunset bar and drink, early dinner and a good rest.

Tuesday, 2^nd of  July

9:00 o’clock, the guide picks us up for a lakes-jungle trekking. (Danau Buyan and Danau Tambligan). After a short drive we come to a view point where we can see both lakes at the same time. We enter the UNESCO protected National Park and follow a nice path through the jungle. The trees have an enormous size, mainly strangler figs: these trees kill the host tree in a period of about 50 years and leave an hollowed out trunk.

We get to the lakes’ shore, the vegetation changing, we have trees plantations here ( it reminds us of European forests). We walk around the second lake and finish the trek after 4 ½ hours. A little lunch , a rest, a massage and a Balinesian Dance workshop for myself, very pleasant.

Dinner and packing up for tomorrow’s leave.

Wednesday, the 3^rd of July

The guide from Asian trails picks us up as settled before and we take the road to the South. Here we come to the famous rice fields of Jatiluwih. We take a long walk through the paddies and terraces, taking many pictures, It is absolutely stunning and one of the highlights of or trip. I buy a typical hat for my collection and some red rice. 

After after a long and satisfying stay at the place we drive on to the South coast to get to the famous temple Pura Beraban Tanah Lot which is situated in the water. It is drizzling, misty, the clouds are low and create a very special light and atmosphere. On the whole the place is not too crowded and we can take some nice pictures.

After these visits on to Limbaran, through Denpasar traffic, and on to the Open House in Jimbaran. José Antonio, the Spanish owner welcomes us. Stroll at the beach and a rather expensive dinner at the beach (after Flores’ prices…)

Thursday, 4^th of July

Breakfast at a lazy 8:00 o’clock. The sky is covered, we are a bit disappointed, having planned a last “bikini-day”. 

We stroll around, shop at the local supermarket for lunch, Gaston gets his hair trimmed at the local barber’s. Funny! The sky clears up, strolling over the beach and a little rest after 3 busy weeks.

Off to the airport and a long and VERY cold flight back home with Singapore Airlines. (via Singapore and Munich) .

Back home on the 6^th of July.