Silence day in Bali

Today the Balinese are celebrating Silence Day – Nyepi. It starts at 6.00 am and takes until 6.00 am the next day. It is a day that is being followed by the Balinese New Year. Nyepi day is used for self-reflection and anything that may interfere with that is being prohibited.
There is no noise ( or as little as possible ), no television or radio, no electricity, and for some, also no eating or drinking. People are not allowed in the streets or out of their own premises. There is no exception for tourists. We are also asked to stay inside, make as little noise as possible and there is no electricity at night so that there will be no light. We are given a candle to use to go to the bathroom if needed, but this should be turned off if not needed. Special police is walking the streets to check if everyone complies with the restrictions.

We are staying in a very small guesthouse with only two other guests. We enjoyed the morning just sitting by the pool and reading books. But somehow, after a few hours of this total silence, I cannot help but be affected by this silence. All we heard today was the crowing of roosters and an occasional dog barking. It makes me do some self-reflection of my own. During this holiday I realized that I am so ready to set off and start traveling. I want to leave rather sooner than later. This is what I want to do. I want to see the world and write about it. It seems as if I see the world with different eyes now. Whenever we go somewhere, I remember I need to take pictures, ( something we never really did while being on holiday. I was always convinced I could never take a better picture than the one in my head…) I write down the name of every place we go to make sure I remember the names whenever I have wifi and time to write about it. Having breakfast in the morning with a view over the ocean makes me happier than I have ever been on holidays. Even the bad weather of the past week could not bring me down. I know that while traveling, we will probably not have sunshine every day either, so why be sad? We just have to find something else to do, which we would also be doing if we would be traveling instead of being on holiday.

We just got offered our first house sit today. If we take it, it means that we would be leaving by the end of September… That means we really have to take a decision soon. Until now, Michel has still been a bit hesitant of leaving so soon with our dog. When we started thinking of going on a world tour, we always spoke about going backpacking. We even calculated a budget for backpacking through SE Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Going overland with a dog needs so much more preparation and may not take us to the countries we know and love. However, the opportunity to start with a comfortable house sit for the first couple of months would make it a lot easier. We could take that time to prepare ourselves, set up the blog a bit better, create our own design and layout. We can decide where and how to continue after the house sit – another house sit, continue by car, go back home? We could take that time to set up an online business to earn some money. And all of that without having to pay rent or stay in hotel rooms or on campsites…

Well, as you will understand, we have a lot to think about during this Silence Day. We will let you know our decision in the next week or so..

The thinking will be done here…. If the sun comes back, that is….

Hiking around Amed

For a few days now, the weather here in Bali has not been great. High waves, so no diving. Cloudy, so not very comfortable on the beach. After having read another book and endlessly trying to get on the Internet, we decided we’d go hiking today. I already mentioned in some tweets that this area is amazing. It is so peaceful and beautiful. We walked for about 13 km today and this is what we saw:

The people working the land along the route were all very friendly. I must admit that after hearing 10x ” hello, how are you, where you go” , we were getting a bit fed up with answering. But we knew that all they were was being friendly. Of course, the Balinese are very entrepreneurial, so many tried to sell us a little boat, tried to convince us to take a massage or asked whether we needed a taxi, if not today, then maybe tomorrow? It never got annoying though, and when we made clear we were just walking and enjoying the landscape, most of the people we met were just curious and showed us where we had to go to see something even more beautiful.

Walking along the coastline made us realize that this area is really in development. Hotels are being built everywhere and every house seems clean and many even brand new. We wonder, will this place still be as peaceful as it is right now in ten years time? What happens if people of the former “developing” countries also start to travel the world? Will the coastline of eastern Bali turn into a second Kuta in a few years time? Now, the area is still green, the prices are low and the hotels are small, but I am afraid that it will not take long before other people will find out about this place and the area will be flooded by tourists from all over the globe.

Of course, me blogging about it might not help. We do not have that many followers yet, so I think today I can still write anything I want, but it does make me think what happens if all travelbloggers write about these “secret” places. It is those places that we are all looking for as travelers if we talk about ” going off the beaten path”, but won’t our blogs change those hidden paradises into touristic “flee markets”? It makes me realize, if we really want to go and explore the world, we should not wait too long!

In order to relax after this long day of hiking and thinking, I decided I needed some relaxation. What better to do than take a massage? In Bali you will find the best massages on every street corner for nearly nothing…

A day in Padang Bai…

Padang Bai is a small village on the east coast of Bali. I think the village is mainly known for being the place where you can take the fast boat to the Gili Islands or the ferry to Lombok. That was also our plan when we got here. But actually, the village is so nice and easy to get around that we decided to spend a few days here. This is how we spent our days;

We start off with a great coffee at the Topi Inn. It is the very last restaurant along the beach while keeping the beach on your right hand side. They serve the best coffee in Padang Bai and the people are very friendly. Plus, they have free wifi, which is not always common here.

Then we walked up the hill just after Topi Inn in the direction of the Blue Lagoon. You go up the hill to the left at the end of the beach in Padang Bai, and then the first parking place at the right hand side leads you to some steps down to the beach. The Blue Lagoon is a beautiful, very small, white sand beach just around the corner of Padang Bai. The beach is surrounded by tropical forest trees on vulcano rocks and looks like a private beach. It is basically just one restaurant with some sunbeds on the beach (20.000 Rp per bed for a full day!) the waves are high, but not too high and it is very quiet. You can have lunch on the beach with a view like this…

If you would prefer a more budget option, you can go to the white sand beach on the other side of the village, Bias Tugel. No sunbeds there, just a few huts where you can eat (really great food for nearly nothing). Do not forget to bring your sarong to lie on.

Around 15h00 we walked back to the hostel for a little nap in order to get ready for a yoga class at 17h00. This yoga class takes place up on the hill on the right hand side of the village and is taught by an American lady, miss Kimberly, who lives in Bali for 8 months of the year and spends the other 4 in the States or in some yoga retreat in India. The view again was amazing. While doing the assana’s, instead of using our “right leg” or “left leg”, miss Kimberly asked us to use our “mountain leg” or “ocean leg”. You can see here why….

Feeling all relaxed after this great yoga class, we went for dinner at the Padang Bai bar, a very tiny restaurant along the beach. The restaurant has only 4 tables and I ate the best freshly grilled mahi mahi that they grill right on the beach!

After dinner we either went for cocktails at the Budda bar by the end of the beach (happy hour every night with cocktails at half price) or for a beer at the Napoleon next to the car park where they play reggae all night. Where to go really depends on your mood…

Then back to the hostel for a very good night sleep. The hostel we stayed in is called The Lemon House. It is run by a Brittish couple, Ben and Clare, who own a beautiful house up on the hill on the right side of the village. The rooms are spacious and have very comfy beds. Ben and Clare will answer all of your questions, give tips on where to go and can help organizing the rest of your trip. We bought our tickets for the fast boat to Gili Trawangan from them at half price.(www.lemonhouse.me).

A journey of a thousand miles starts with one single step – Lao Tuz

We found these inspirational words on a monument in Singapore, the sea of dreams. It says exactly what it feels like. I already wrote once about the baby steps we take towards our journey, one at a time. It seems that we get one step closer to our goal every week.

We are now on a vacation to Asia. We will visit Singapore, Bali and the Gili’s. It is quite a special vacation, because it may very well be our last before our big journey. Over the past few weeks we have been thinking more and more about traveling the world by car with our dog. It looks like that is what we really want to do. We will take these coming three weeks to think it through, do some more research and decide on a route. The deadline we set for ourselves is the first week of April. By then we want to take a final decision on where to go, when to go and how. The next three weeks will be about the following:

1. Are we really ready to travel with Dunya? What are the pro’s and con’s? What do we need to prepare in order to do so? What extra precautions do we need to take? We already took a first step there by getting in touch with Frank and Martine of theworldisbeautiful.nl who will set off in May with their dog Happy. They gave us advise on what food to bring, to buy a ” cooling ” mat and a website where you can see per country what to do if you want to bring a dog. (www.licg.nl)

2. If the first question will be answered by a positive, then how do we proceed? Will we buy a 4×4 or a campervan? What are the pro’s and con’s of either of those vehicles? Where do we buy such a thing? What would it cost? What would the budget look like if we go overland? Which route can we take?

3. Depending on the replies of 1 and 2, we need to decide when we want to leave. My first reply would be ” before the winter “, but what does that mean? What are the implications? Where do we go to prevent the cold (sleeping in a roof tent on top of a 4×4 at -10 in Norway does not sound very appealing..) and what does that mean for a further route? Maybe we will first drive down to Spain, spent the winter there and then drive back up north and follow the footsteps of Frank and Martine to Russia and Mongolia?

4. We want to look into house sitting opportunities. It might be an idea to start with a house sit somewhere in Europe to take the time to prepare, get the website really up and running, decide on a route, organize the necessary visa etc.

5. Being on a budget. We have never really had to watch our budget during our vacations. We did what we wanted to do, ate where we wanted to eat and never really thought of the cost of things. We were on holiday.
During this current holiday we want to see what it’s like to be on a budget. Are we capable of watching every penny? Do we enjoy sleeping in hostels? Do we feel comfortable eating at a foodstall in the street?

6. Trying out our Icebreaker shirts… We heard so many good things about these shirts. We both brought only three shirts that will have to last the full three weeks (without laundry..) Supposedly, one can wear these shirts for three weeks or more in a row without them ever going to stink or stain!! That will come in handy for travelers. Imagine being able to wear one shirt for sleeping, working out and every day wear for three weeks without having to wash it? We will let you know after these three weeks if that really works out…

7. Last but not least, we are on holiday, so of course we will also take time off and not think of the upcoming journey. If possible, we may take a scuba liveaboard tour for a few days. We will lay on the beach reading “normal” books that are not about travel.. And every now and then we will not think of the money we spent and just spend it. At this very moment when writing this post, we are enjoying a beer in Singapore, worth 12 SD each….