Tag: backpacking

  • An Eastern European aventure? Yes, please! 

    An Eastern European aventure? Yes, please! 

    I met Heidi, my Alaskan sweetheart, years and years ago… we became friends, we became sisters from another mister and we became traveling partners in crime. Our long-distance friendship was made stronger over the years by our love of sacarsm, outdoor, traveling and our aversion of hugs. Ever since we met, we have tried to…

  • The end of a 6-month adventure…

    The end of a 6-month adventure…

    … I was going to include my journey to go home in my previous post but it turned out to be such an adventure, it deserved a story of its own. After 6 months of intense (sometimes borderline insane) adventures through Latin America and Indonesia, you would think that we finally had enough. That we…

  • Central Sulawesi: Tentena or our lovely stopover while trying to reach Ampana!

    Central Sulawesi: Tentena or our lovely stopover while trying to reach Ampana!

    Leaving death behind was a relief and we were really looking forward to discovering Tentena in Central Sulawesi. We jumped on the only bus to Tentena for what became the longest bus ride we have had in a long time. A few pukers, a meeting with a funnice Franco-irish couple, 318 kilometers and 14 hours later, we…

  • Tana Toraja or how we spent two enjoyable days with death

    Tana Toraja or how we spent two enjoyable days with death

    “It’s not that I’m afraid to die. I just don’t want to be there when it happens” – Woody Allen. Death can be scary, death can be a relief, death can be sad, death can be sudden but I never experienced it as being the main focus of somebody’s life. When we landed in Makassar…

  • One, two, three little lakes: welcome to Kelimutu

    One, two, three little lakes: welcome to Kelimutu

    5 hours to drive 50 km (yes, we did say that everything takes longer on Flores but really?!) turned an easy journey into an unnecessary dragging trip… Starting at stupid o’clock, I am known anyway for loving those ridiculous early starts, we reached Moni 10 hours later. We had to wait two hours for a…

  • Riung or the forgotten paradise of Flores!

    Riung or the forgotten paradise of Flores!

    Riung or not Riung? This was the question… M and I discussed a lot about it as it was clearly out of our way. It looked amazing on google and we were keen to check it out. However since it was located up north, it would have cost us three precious days of our time…

  • Meet and greet: the fierce Komodo dragons

    Meet and greet: the fierce Komodo dragons

    It sure took me a while (they do say that you are what you eat and I eat snails so…) but I can say that I have finally fulfilled a lifelong dream of mine: I hiked on Rinca Island among the Komodo dragons! Spielberg would have been proud of me, I thought while taking zillions…

  • Ubud: the town where…

    Ubud: the town where…

    … We were asked 192 times if we needed a taxi and 67 times if we would like a massage. In any other country, this would have been borderline harassment but most of them were so smiley, we couldn’t feel any anger or irritation. We kept smiling back, answering “Tidak, terima kasih” (no, thanks) 192…

  • Our volcanic time on Java: Mt. Bromo and Mt. Ijen

    Our volcanic time on Java: Mt. Bromo and Mt. Ijen

    When we booked our train ticket to Probolinggo (or Probo for the cool kids), we were told that there were only economy tickets available. Perfect, thought the budget traveler in me. Damn, thought the girl who just left her Swiss and Jakartan comforts. We knew that we had had luck with our train from Jakarta…

  • Our cultural time on Java: Yogyakarta, Borobudur and Prambanan

    Our cultural time on Java: Yogyakarta, Borobudur and Prambanan

    To be completely honest, it was hard for us to leave Jakarta after the VIP treatment we received. Putting our backpacks on meant that we would again have to take showers with flipflops (slightly challenging in Indonesia as many places require you to leave your shoes outside), that we would not know where we would…