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Bali

Written by Michael Zangerle on . Posted in Indonesia

And here we are again – at the amazing island – BALI.

Together with Micha’s parents we took a cab to Sanur and got quick to our beautiful cottage. The garden opened our minds for Bali itself.

We went to Kuta/Legian searching for a car rental. For surviving that you need to shut your ears, cause everybody wants to give you massage, transport or invites you for ‘just looking, madam” and offers you marihuana, to name just some standard approachings all along the street. I tell you, it’s a long street!

We guess that the first word a baby speaks is transport (for the male) and massage (for the female).

After a long bargain we cut the price short. The car rental started at 30 Euros a day, we spend 13 Euros later on. Without a charge for driven miles. This is Bali, you just have to bargain, bargain and bargain…

Now imaging this picture: 4 Germans for the first time on the roads of Bali, with an almost brandnew Toyota. The map did not fit with reality of the streets, town names did not matter, so we never really knew where we were. Mad motorcycle drivers circled all around the car and cars just crossed the road as they want to, they just crossed our way. You brake, you lose! So be it, Micha copied the Balinese style in perfection and did not care about his mom and her screaming. After a while she got used to it, more or less. Let’s just say, she earn some years during this vacation. We had to speed and cross the way of cars and mofas. Red lights? Give the horn and it will turn green, if not, pass it, when it’s still red.

It was big fun, even if the adrenalin was all the time on a high level. Micha gained a lot off grey hair, but he managed to drive 1000 miles without a single thing happening to the car.

First we watched the templ;e of Uluwatu, which is at the top off a cliff. You had to watch out for the cheaky monkeys, the stole what ever they could get, hats, glasses and cameras…

After that we made a break at opne off the small beaches where we watched surfers while enjoying a freshmade orange juice. It’s faszinating to see people are one with the water and the surf.

We stopped at temples like Tanah Lot, we could watch a anniversary ceremony there, Mengwi and Danau Bratan which lays at a  volcano lake. We made our way to Ubud, a town where artists and handycrafts show what the can do with woods and other materials. If you look for that kind of stuff you are right here. For Rita and Deiter we bargained and got two nice masks. Such a day can be pretty tough, cause Ubud is quite touristic. So about 1000 times “madam, just look, cheap, cheap price, just for you” later we relaxed in a small quite restaurant at the edge off some rice fields.

For the refreshment on this trip we watched to Gitgit waterfalls, quite hgh, a little rainy and cooler than anything else. Micha and Nadine almost froze, cause they are used to this climate but his parents had to fight a little.

Actually we just spend one day at the beach. The waves were quite high, let’s say, high enough to kick Nadine and Michas asses. The current and the big amount off water did not make it easy to have real fun. We found black sand everywhere, when we took a shower… There you can see, why Bali is such a paradise for surfers.

In an old small town we could find the real ancient Bali. There they still live there own culture. They have their own government and calendar (mid 1943). Marriage just with the people off the town, otherwise you have to leave the town. Most people are working in agriculture but 30% are employed in the next city.

The art off „double-ikat“ is still alive there. It’s a special technique to make beautiful scarf and sarongs. This town has just 640 people living there but 83 kids. Twice a year they perform a ritual where men fight with KAKTEEN till they bleed.

Two weeks ended very fast and  back we were in Kuala Lumpur.

Accommodation: Sativa Sanur Cottage, Jl. Danau Tamblingan, Sanur, http://sativahotels.com/sanur/en/

Price: Euro 35 per Cottage with double bed, Whirlpool bathtub, incl. breakfast

Comment: fantastic breakfast buffet, beautifully arranged garden and great pool

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Kuala Lumpur 2009

Written by Michael Zangerle on . Posted in Malaysia

Here we got welcomed by the family Raja and they showed us around. The PetronaTowers and the Golden Triangel we had to see and the Classic Inn where we stayed was perfect situated. Next to this gigantic shopping-mall.

Guess what. This mall was crazy and a German mall would have fitted in there easily 6 times. It had 11 floors and inside was a hugh funpark with rollercoasters. Everywhere you found free WiFi, means sitting in a coffee bar you just had to open up your laptop  and up you go in the world wide web. This is new for us Germans hahaha.

Low Yat was a hugh center, 9 floors full with high-tech like computer, mobile phones, tv, cameras and so on. This was a boys playground and Micha and his father felt like heaven. It was easy to decide buying a small laptop for travelling around. Makes it so much faster and easier to get all the reports and pics on our homepage. And the price was awesome. What to say, we just had to buy it.

For sure, KL doesn’t only has malls. A big birdpark was nice to get away from the big city. Then we went to the BatuCaves, the biggest Hindu temple in a cave near Kuala Lumpur. A few steps later a little bit out of breath we had a perfect view over to KL.

Haniza showed us the historical art centre with malaysian handicraft. Buying directly from the artist it was a lot cheaper and it was really great to get to now them personally. Unfortunately we planned to travel around and our backpack should stay light, therefore we didn’t buy anything. If we would have stayed one week in KL we wouldn’t have fitted in our pants. Haniza and her family invited us in great restaurants and we experienced exotic food. It was great and we thank you a lot. We had a great time with you guys!

In the night of the 12th of November we had to say goodbye to Micha’s parents. Another piece of home left us. It wasn’t easy and we really enjoyed travelling with them. On the 13th Micha and me flew up to Chiang Mai/Thailand. Our backpacker trip could start now.

Accommodation: Classic Inn
Price: US$ 15
Comment: small double room with bathroom. Breakfast included.

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Massive Storm

Written by Michael Zangerle on . Posted in Malaysia

Yesterday Nadine had two more open water dives with her students. The first dive was at Tanjung Basi. After checking the waves Nadine decided to do the surface skills in the afternoon.

The current was strong but with current comes also a lot of fish. After a couple of skills the three followed the reef. Because of the current Nadine decided to do a one way dive. Back on the surface the waves had been already pretty big and with the regulator in their mouth their fighted back to the boat.

At the afternoon they went to Batu Layar. The water was little bit calmer and after the surface skills they went down. Batu Layar is a reef in the sea between the two Perhentian Islands. Nadine wanted to do some more skills on 16 m in the sand but on 13 m there was a massive thermoclime. On 12 m they had 30°C but on 13 m it already dropped for 3°C to 27°C water temperature.

It sounds warm but the water cools the body down 20 times faster than on land. 30°C on land is very nice and warm but under water the diver starts freezing after a while. This depends on different conditions. The physics of someone and also if you did already some dives before. The more you jump in the water the faster you´re freezing. First dive a day will be alright, but already on the second dive you start freezing faster. A thermoclime of 3°C difference feels like swimming against something.

Because of the thermoclime they had a visibility of only 2 m. This reminded Nadine on German lakes. Doing some skills with no vis didn´t make sense. When she turned around she barely could see her students. Nadine turned around to go back to the anchor line and did the skills there. Then they stayed most of the time on 12 m and had a fantastic dive. The waves were pushing them but they enjoyed the dive.

During the dive Nadine heard the rain. She looked up and showed her students. It is fascinating when fresh water gets in contact with salt water. After a 36 minutes dive because one of the students had only 50 bar left they started the safety stop. Nadine shot her safety sausage up and on 5 m they waited 3 minutes that the body had some time to release some nitrogen. When they looked up they already could see the big waves.

Slowly the three ascended and back at the surface the sea was pretty rough. Nadine saw Anke – her boss – and two other boatman wearing a livewest. Nervous they gestured that the three of them should come to the boat. With the regulator in their mouth they fought against the big waves and on board Anke told them about the strong storm.

Back on land they saw the impact. Fallen trees, cayacs flew around and broke in peaces. Everything during the three of them had a nice dive with some current. Under water the storm is not so effective. Today everything is cleaned up and the sun shines. Nadine enjoys her day off. After only 2 days off in September she will chill out a bit.