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comments, twitter…

I recognized just a few hours ago, there were comments written, which needed to be approved…

Did so now and tried to respond to them – sorry for the delay and thanks a lot for your input/contributions!

As most people reading my blog do know already anyway and I no longer feel ashamed of using it…

My twitter username: foobarbablub – respectively the twitter page: http://twitter.com/foobarblablub

Polluting the twitter cloud with statements / impressions I don’t think they’re worth a whole blog post… most tweets are not related to technical / computer stuff by the way – used language is mostly English…

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back to the coast

Since it was raining in Ubud most of the time I decided to get back to the coast, back to Sanur.

“My room” in the house of that English-Balinese family in Sanur got a bit, ehrm, “broken” meanwhile:

However the time the weather was reasonable, I tried to catch as much as possible – e.g. the legendary monkey forest: hell, 2500 monkeys trying to rip you off.

Trying to get everything which is not part of your body (cameras, necklaces, earrings, (sun)glasses, etc.) – waiting with your belongings a few meters in front of you for bananas or other food in exchange – seriously, you can buy your stuff back!

After two days in Sanur I moved to the “southern most point” of Bali, Uluwatu. It was my fault to not book a room or an apartment in advance, so I experienced one “sorry, we’re full” after another on site.

Finally some building workers put me into one of their unfinished apartments they were working on. It was overprized, however I was tired and happy I finally found an accommodation.

In Uluwatu, according surfers, there is a couple of best spots highly seeked by surfers – that’s why the few existing quarters down there are full and overpriced all the time.

Since I’m not surfing (and these spots are definitly not proper spots for beginning with) and nothing else was around (the last kind of “bar” around closes at 8PM), I just enjoyed the view, read something and left two days later.

Actually I wanted to go Seminyak and a few days further to Tanah Lot (one of the most adored temples in Bali), but everything there was full, as well (however this time I knew before, as I called them :)).

As I had to cross Kuta (the “Ballermann” of Bali, mentioned in the post before) – and since it was the only place around I was able to get a room reserved for this night – I decided to stay there overnight and move further the day after.

When I arrived in Kuta however, they told me, the guy who wanted to checkout is going to stay longer and there’s no more room available. After hours of walking around looking for and calling hotels / apartments (once again), some locals I met offered me to stay in there place where I am currently.

The reason by the way everything is fully booked is Ramadan.

Will go directly to Tanah Lot this afternoon, after confirming the room reserved there is still available when leaving 🙂

UPATE: I _am_ in Tanah Lot right now, however didn’t get post online in time 🙂

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Bali (Indonesia) English articles My life Trips

Ubud

I moved from Sanur to Ubud today, which is located in the center of Bali – staying here for at least three days.

Actually I wanted to go there by taxi, however in the morning I met three really nice local guys in my age, who offered to drive me there for free after I told them I’m going to go to Ubud today… (however) by motorcycle.

Considering the traffic conditions on Bali I really was not sure about whether taking this offer would be a good idea… however I agreed – no risk no fun… – it was an awesome experience!

So I collected all my stuff, threw it in my backpack and met with these guys – four people on two motorcycles, lurching through the traffic about 40 minutes from Sanur to Ubud having all my stuff on my back.
Watching the traffic from this point of view it seems much more and less scary at the same time. You’re now part of this chaos, praying the guy in front of you driving the motorcycle is doing everything right.
However it just works – what seems to be the worst chaos ever from the outside, from the inside everything seems to be smooth, everybody is seems to be relaxed, just trying to find out whether this gap is big enough to get through…

The accomodation is really simple, but quite nice – just a room with a bed in and a kind of open-air shower and WC. Tea and coffee the whole day and breakfast included for about 10USD / night.

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Bali (Indonesia) German articles My life Trips

some impressions

This post is derived from an email to some of my German relatives and friends – maybe I’m going to translate it to English later…

so langsam fühl ich mich wohl hier… gestern war irgendwie der erste Tag an dem ich richtig am Meer und Pool ausspannen konnte – Beweis:

Man (ich) benötigt scheinbar doch wirklich mehr Zeit als man sich eingestehen möchte – Überwindung des Jetlags, Anpassung an die Klimaverhältnisse, Verstehen und Erwidern können der balinesischen Art im Alltag…

Hängt wohl auch damit zusammen, dass ich so langsam glaube rauszuhaben, wie man mit all den Reizüberflutungen – vor Allem der an jeder Ecke und nicht-Ecke stehenden Verkäufern, die einem alles Mögliche andrehen möchten – umzugehen hat.

Die vorherige Grundlage “die wollen doch alle nur Touristen abzocken” bot nicht viel Spieraum für ernstzunehmende Gespräche. Es beginnt aber Spaß zu machen auf eben jene einzugehen, mit den Leuten einfach nur zu reden, ggf. zu Handeln, feixen, etc – vor Allem wenn man merkt, dass noch immer Interesse seitens der Verkäufer – trotz klarem Nein zu angeboteten Waren und Dienstleistungen – an ein wenig Smalltalk besteht.

Zudem – was mir vorher auch nicht deutlich wurde – wahren sie, trotz ihrer exzessiven Versuche Dienstleistungen / Produkte an den Mann zu bringen – ihre Prizipien und Kultur. Vor jedem Stand und Laden legen die Balinesen kleine Opfergaben auf die Straße, beten und überschreiten bestimmte Grenzen einfach nicht (klare Neins werden auch als solche akzeptiert).

Ich habe mir gestern Abend/Nacht Kura angeschaut – dem Ballermann Mallorcas auf Bali – wenn man da lebend rauskommt, ist man für alles andere gewappnet.

Eigentlich wollte ich mich auch dort ein paar Tage lang aufhalten, jedoch war der Rat seitens meines englischen Gastgebers – sich den Ort ggf. vorher einfach mal anzuschauen (~30 min. mit dem Taxi von Sanur aus) – eine sehr gute Idee; dort Ruhe und Schlaf zu finden dürfte nicht einfach werden.

Zudem wurde ich nun wirklich häufig vor den Australiern gewarnt – am Treffensten wurde es so formuliert: “Well, you’re German… I guess the Australians in Bali are like the Germans on Mallorca”… Kuta, eine perfekte Symbiose.

Sich in Kuta einzuquartieren ist also vorerst keine Option.

Allerdings ist der kilometerlange Strand dort trotz angrenzender Partymeile extrem ruhig, nicht überlaufen und wirklich schön und ich habe eine Menge echt netter dort lebender Leute kennengelernt die sich hier häufig zum allabendlichen Sonnenuntergang einfinden.

Darunter unter Anderem eine Gruppe von Japanern die teils auf Bali, teils auf Java wohnen – einer von ihnen arbeitet in Kuta als Friseur und will mir, weil ich der doch schon gut angetrunkenen und kettenrauchenden Truppe, die knapp bei Kasse war, ne Packung Kippen spendierte, irgendwann demnächst einen neuen Haarschnitt verpassen – bin da aber noch ein wenig skeptisch :)).

Ich habe gerade eine Unterkunft in Ubud, im Zentrum Balis, gebucht – für von morgen plus zwei Nächte. Steht im Guide als Low-Budget (8USD/Nacht) Unterkunft folgendermaßen beschrieben: “Charmante kleine Bambusbungalows mit wunderschön begrüntem Open-Air-Du/WC, in der das kalte Wasser schnell zur Nebensache wird” – man darf gespannt sein 🙂

Sanur, der Ort in welchem ich mich die ganze Zeit hauptsächlich aufhalte, gefällt mir so langsam wirklich gut.
Sonne, Strand, Meer, luxuriöse Hotelanlagen deren Bars und Pools ich trotz nicht-dort-Gast einfach mitbenutze, was los, aber doch nicht zuviel – ein prima Ort zum akklimatisieren und einfühlen.

Ich werde auf jeden Fall – spätestens am Ende meines ungeplanten geplanten Rundtrips – hier in Sanur nochmal aufschlagen, zumal ich dort und Unbegung einen Haufen wirklich netter Leute kennengelernt habe, die ich auf jeden Fall nochmal wiedersehen möchte. Die weitere spätere Unterkunft hier bei der balinesisch-/englischen Familie steht mir weiterhin zur Verfügung.

Zum Schluss noch ein paar Eindrücke des Ortes Sanur in Form von ungephotoshoppten Fotos:

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Bali (Indonesia) English articles My life Trips

successfully arrived on Bali

I successfully arrived in Bali yesterday in the evening. Flight was (as always) not quite enojoyable (Amsterdam -> Singapore more than 12 hours) – however it was bearable.
I was surprised actually by the service offered by KLM and Singapore Airlines in a positive way (food was surprisingly great: both offered fish – first time I got fish offered on an airplane as regular meal within economy class; Singapore Airlines additionally had real metal cutlery and a big portion of awesome ice-cream afterwards, for a flight of just two hours).

Met a German couple on the plane going to do professional diving somewhere in the south of Bali for three weeks. They offered me to visit them there and taking a deep look into the water with professional diving equipment. From what they told it has to be really incredible and if any way possible, I’m going to take that offer whenever I’ll be in this area.

On the final flight from Singapore to Bali I met an English guy, who is living on Bali with his Balinese wife and daugther for quite some time now and offered me to stay with them in their place for a couple of days which offer I thankfully took, as I had no clue anyway what to do after dropping out of the airplane (I in case of doubt I would have aimed a hostel near the airport mentioned in my guide).
These three people (actually four, there is an attendant living with them who is treated as part of the family) are really lovely, doing everything to make my stay enjoyable – well, I got in touch with the guy just two hours ago on the plane!

Their place – they call it “simple” – is wonderful; the whole kind-of 2nd floor is mine, within an own (bed)room, bathroom and an area with chairs and table which is opened to the inside of the whole area which in fact is a little garden – if I want to just “relax” they said…

Just take a look by yourself:

When writing this text it’s about 4 ‘o clock local time – bloody jetlag… _right now_ I just did see Bali at night (arrived at 9 ‘o clock); I’m really curious about how this all looks by day.

I took a walk in the area nearby at about 11PM and have to admit – I don’t really feel comfortable just walking around alone… Overall people offering you every kind of services in a very aggressive way, trying to rip off tourists.
However walking around in this area, tired and a little bit agitated because of the long flight, just wanna have everybody shut-up, might not have been the appropriate preconditions facing the situation in an open-minded way.

UPDATE: That was really just the first impression… the people are nice and kind, seriously. Yes, they want to sell their stuff quite often and quite everywhere, however you get used to it… just saying no, starting ignoring them or taking with them about all the world and his wife or whatever elese  🙂

So much for now – as there are lot of things I’d like to see/visit very close by the place I’m currently staying, I think I’ll keep staying here for a couple of days – trying to figure out where to go and what to do next.