take care

if you happen to stay at suka beach inn or mekar jaya in kuta/bali (benesari street near popies II) then please watch out! they stole two 50€-notes from our room in suka beach inn (we put the notes into a book and they found it; must have been the staff because the door wasn’t broken) and at mekar jaya they use to take a little amount of your rupees every single day, so that you don’t really know if somebody took it or if you spent it.

of course it can happen everywhere, but it happened to us at those two places, so I wanted to let you know. they don’t take laptops, cameras or phones as far as I know, only cash…

eat – pray – love? transport – motorbike – sunglasses?

and everything “cheap cheap” of course! wow, after three weeks, if I hear someone asking me “massaaage?” again, I might run amok. bali is sooo exhausting. jimbaran, kuta, medewi, nusa lembongan, bingin… everywhere we go, the same questions. sometimes not even a “hello”, the only words we get is “motorbike?” or “transport?” or “sunglasses?” or “massage?”

I visited bali four years ago and also back then it was the same. I don’t know if it has been getting worse, but I cannot see or feel anything like calmness, spirituality or altruism on this island. there are only a handful of people left who see you as a human being – for most of them, you’re an ATM.

thank you old man in nusa lembongan for your honesty and kindness (if you need a place to stay there, go visit this lovely person at “johnnys losmen” – 100.000 rupees per night per room) and thank you beach boys near mcdonalds in kuta, partying with you was really funny and you didn’t want to fuck us like so many others. thanks to you I don’t hate bali in general…

ps: eat – pay – leave!

pps: I’m quite sure in a few years, you also have to pay for the smile…

fasting

have an easy one, my dear friends. peace!

gecko pee

do the little baby geckos pee from the rooftop? I think so, because today in medewi there have been two raindrops falling on my hand from above, but it wasn’t raining in our room *lol* (although it rains a lot here)

I really like the lefthander here, it’s smooth and nice to beginners and longboarders, although it can get pretty huge.

unfortunately bf is bored of course, because it’s not a proper shortboard-wave. and he starts complaining about everything: the dirty water, the black sand, the rocky beach – oh dear…

“eating one week motorbike”

dear surfer-fellows traveling on a budget: do not have dinner in one of the fancy restaurants at jimbaran beach! what a mistake – *lol*. first of all, it wasn’t really nice (the food for 10.000 rupees at kuta beach is way better!!!) and second, “we have been eating one week motorbike” like my bf put it aptly ;)

I hope he will get used to the asian food. until now, he’s not in it at all. he’s searching for food he likes everywhere, but there is no tajine or couscous in indonesia – only rice three times a day. hell, and hes misses the bread…

up in the air

so beautiful… and so sad…

from morocco to indonesia

finally, after three exhausting flights, we landed in bali. a friend of a friend of mine picked us up at the airport, really cool, because we landed after sunset and it’s always better not to look for a room at night. she managed everything for us in advance – wow! thanks dewi!

but we will move from jimbaran to kuta, because it’s much cheaper there. hopefully we find a somewhat nice place for some nights. I don’t really want to stay in or around kuta for too long. the tourists crack my nerves. I know, we are tourists too, but you know what I mean.

I’d rather be in a small village with some nice suferdudes and -girls, nice locals, a good surf during the day and a cold bintang in the evening. hopefully I can convince my bf to go to medewi for some days – he’s not really into it yet, because he’s afraid that the lefthander might be too small for him, which could be true, but for me it would be PERFECT!!!

that’s the thing when you travel together having different surf skills. but I hope we will not fight too much about it. if you are in or around kuta, let us know. maybe we can join for a session or a drink! :)

allahu akbar (?)

wow, it’s been our first day of ramadan and it was really hard. I decided to join my bf, because it’s just not nice to eat and drink when he cannot. but did you know that it’s also forbidden to use perfume? well, so we will be hungry stinkers for one month ;) the hardest part is that I’m not allowed to touch my bf during daylight – no kisses, no hugs, nothing. well…

they say, it doesn’t make any sense to do ramadan without praying – it’s like a donkey who stands in the sun all day long. but do religious traditions make a sense at all? I say, if you believe in them, yes. I like rituals and traditions, although they are not mine. I like eating apples and honey at rosh hashana and believe in a good new year, although I’m not jewish (yet). and I have to lose some weight anyway, so why don’t do ramadan?

we’re in! let’s see for how long…

couchsurfing again – ole ole!

lisbon – what a city! but I didn’t stay in the city center for my almost 24-hour stopover, I managed to find a wonderful couchsurfergirl who picked me up at the train station with her amazing van and brought me to a huge farm where she and her boyfriend live at the time. they are a “bilateral” couple too, so it was really nice to get to know them.

at night another couchsurfer joined us – check out his page! he is on tour through europe for the america cancer society at the moment with his enduro motorbike and he’s just WOW! I wish I could have gotten to know him better… so my first days on the road and I feel the pain of saying goodbye again. that’s what I really don’t like about traveling – I might never get used to it.

the good thing was, that I catched my host at the right time. she needed a positive experience, because she wasn’t sure anymore about couchsurfing. some of her surfers haven’t been nice and on top a few days ago, a girl has been raped in lisbon by her host!!! WTF??? I always knew this could happen, but when it really does, you feel so sad and angry! f*** you! f*** you!!! you destroy our beautiful community!!!

all the best to all of my couchsurfing friends out there! have fun and take care…

kickoff! :)

wherever I go, israel is near… on my way to morocco I had a stopover in lisbon. on the plane, I got the place at the window, although I don’t really like it, you know – you do have to bother people when you want to go to the toilet, so after having seen many awesome skies and clouds in the past, I prefer the aisle seat ;)

whatever – next to me sat an older couple and somehow we started chatting. they’ve been born in israel, but left the country 23 years ago for europe. it’s been so cool to talk to them and I’ve been feeling amazingly comfortable, which is really good when you start a big trip :)

the woman has been afraid when we landed, because the plane shaked a bit. I told her “hakol hije beseder” and she was so happy I talked to her in hebrew, it was really funny.

all the best to my new israeli acquaintances and I hope my trip will go on with such nice happenings like this one.

couchsurfing in lisbon will follow :)

lechaim!
-steph