Blog revived!

Sitting and watching the sun set over Kota Kinabalu, East Malaysia during cocktail and canapé hour - I think I'm in heaven. Or at least this is a strong contender for the title of "ultimate bliss" in my imagination.

We arrived in KK yesterday afternoon to a warm blast of tropical air with ten days ahead of us. I finished up at work (for good) on Thursday afternoon and by Thursday night (or 1.05 am Friday morning to be exact), I was on a plane headed for one of my favourite places - Malaysia. This is our third trip to KK, the first being the time we got married - which was a pretty action packed trip with loads of people and stuff to do.

The second trip was the polar opposite - it came just after a particularly hectic few months and I was feeling pretty tired. We went snorkelling at the nearby islands and took a day trip to Mt Kinabalu. But I also recall spending large amounts of time sleeping and sitting curled up in a big leather armchair in the Club lounge reading.

Borneo, where KK is located, has heaps of things to see and do. It's particularly famous for the rainforest interior, orang utan population and other wildlife. But I don't think we'll head out of the city on this trip - which is exactly what I'm up for. Sometimes it's awesome to be all adventure-y, but I also love trips where you just drop into another city and wander around fairly aimlessly. I think we will do a couple of trips out to the islands to snorkel, but I'm most looking forward to walking down the boardwalk, watching a couple of movies at the local cinema and going to the market.

I had been looking forward to sitting by the pool in the sun with a cocktail in hand for months, which I managed to achieve yesterday afternoon. It's amazing how something you're so looking forward to can be sated in 10 minutes or less!! Or is that a 14 hour journey to East Malaysia, plus 10 minutes... Anyway, the Singapore sling hit the spot and instantly transported me to the coveted "holiday mode"!

So far today we've managed breakfast, a stint in the gym and lunch of extremely delish pork noodles. We did also get to the movies this afternoon and watched Taken 2 in a room full of Malaysian teenagers - it had quite a few violent scenes which strangely the crowd found hilariously funny... I think the movies here are censored for sexual content, so action and horror flicks are on heavy rotation as a result. I think tomorrow our choices are a Nic Cage movie about kidnapping and a Chinese action-adventure! Woo hoo!!

Because the last few weeks of work were pretty hectic, I didn't sit down and pack in one go - I sort of threw things at the suitcase on a few occasions and hoped for the best. So, I ended up with a bit of a mixed bag. So far I realised that I've got my camera but no charger and no do-hickey that allows me to move photos from the camera to the iPad (and then onto the blog). Probably forgot a couple of other things too, but I guess when your only plans are to wander around the streets, watch a couple of movies, eat some beef noodles and drink some cold milo (they sell it everywhere) not too much can go wrong!

Happy weekend wherever you are!

- Posted with a Bacardi and ginger ale in hand

Location:Jalan Tun Fuad Stephen,Kota Kinabalu,Malaysia

The end

 

Ah, it's been awhile. I realise I never wrote a final travel blog post - I meant to. I was going to write one when we got back from Singapore, but the return home to Melbourne was all a bit chaotic and overwhelming and as time passed it seemed more and more arbitrary to end the blog on a random Thursday in Melbourne. 

But today seems like a fitting time to give this blog its final post. Today is the very last day of what turned out to be a seven month break from everyday life and work and an opportunity to live in an unstructured way for a while. Tomorrow I go back to work and "normal" life resumes.

Do I think "normal" life will have fundamentally changed now that I've had a complete break - will my approach to everything have altered? I don't think so. I'll go back to work and probably approach things much the same way as I have in the past, but having learned a few things which I hope I'll keep in mind. Like no holiday is long enough, so it's important to make everyday life as enjoyable as possible, because you can't fit a lifetime of fun into six months. Also, it's very easy to lose perspective when your focus is narrow - the horizon looms so large and wide when you're not caught up in day to day dramas. Little lessons, but important ones. Just have to put them into practice - not always so easy!

The last six weeks or so have flown by in a total haze. There are some major milestones - we painted the house, did a complete overhaul of all our stuff, gave away carloads of things, bought some new ones, saw friends and movies and some comedy. I took Phil to Apollo Bay for his birthday and saw trees filled with koalas. It was lovely. I could probably find ways to pass the time in this sort of leisurely, unstructured way ad infinitum. But it doesn't work like that. I didn't finish a whole lot of things on my list, but that's ok. I'll save it all up for the next time we decide to take six months off!!

Until then...

Selamat tinggal, auf wiedersehn, ciao, au revoir, farewell.

On our last leg....

It's the last few days of what I initially dubbed "mega trip" and we are in Singapore, spending our time wandering about before coming home. We are in Asia's shopping mecca, blessed by an almighty Australian dollar... and cursed by overfilled bags and no real need for anything.

I wrote a lovely post about our final day in Bali, but the Internet gods decided not to publish it - twice. And my patience for typing the same thing out a third time vanished. But I can tell you that our last day in Bali was really lovely. We had one last breakfast at Warung Ocha (Phil had his favourite burger), went for a swim, a walk and a massage. No last sunset on the beach because it was pouring with rain, but I had insisted on three beach sunset evenings during our last week, just in case we missed the last one. Actually the whole last week in Bali felt very relaxing - like a good wind down to the trip.

It seemed fitting that in rained non-stop on our last day in Bali. Today, while sitting in the Marina Bay Sands shopping mall, drinking a coffee, the strap of my (fairly new and really nice) Havianas broke. I was seriously just sitting in a booth, not moving when *ping* - I was suddenly wearing broken footwear. It's as though the universe was saying, "you no longer need thongs, Bali is over and it's time to go back to the real world where people wear proper shoes". I was briefly barefoot, hobbling around the mall, but soon found some black Melbourne-appropriate shoes. You could wear them to work, Phil said. It's true, I could - but I haven't thought about what to wear to work in a while.

I was definitely a bit sad to be leaving Bali, or more to be ending this trip. But I'm happy to be coming home. I missed stuff - my place, friends, family, the cat (will she know who we are??). I think if this trip has shown me anything, it's that no amount of time away is ever truly enough. But I don't think the answer is going away for longer. I would be happy to come home and find everything just as we left it, which is a good thing, I think.

We haven't got much planned for Singapore - just wandering around a bit. Yesterday we went to Orchard rd and looked at shops and watched a movie called Safe House - unsurprisingly not up for Oscar contention. Although, while we're on that topic - Bradd Pitt nominated for Moneyball??? WTF - did they actually watch that movie - ugh...

Tomorrow we might walk to Little India and look around. Maybe go to Clarke Quay for some seafood for dinner?? Singapore always feels like a place you end up in again and again, so I never feel like I need to see much here. Perhaps some inspiration will strike tomorrow??

Location:Kallang Rd,Singapore,Singapore

Tropical island crisp

In the last post, we had just arrived on idyllic Nusa Lembongan after a non-eventful boat ride from Bali.

On our second day on Nusa Lembongan, we arranged to head out for a day of snorkeling with a local fisherman/ tour guide. There are a few spots around Nusa Lembongan and the neighboring island, Nusa Penida, which have fantastic snorkeling.

It was an amazing day - beautiful weather, sailing around the islands - our first stop was Crystal Bay on the coast of Nusa Penida. You jump straight off the boat into the water, so the water is deep, absolutely crystal clear and filled with bright colorful fish. It's a pretty popular spot, so there were many other snorkelers around. We paddled around for 45 minutes or so and then reboarded for our next stop.

We were lucky in our second location to be the only ones there and surrounded by hundreds of different kinds of fish. Especially since our well-meaning captain threw bread in the water once we were submerged, attracting a huge species of fish with big teeth which scared the crap out of the other fish... And me. Phil was cracking up in the water as I attempted to 'hide' from the giant mutant fish in the water behind him, only to realise that there were others coming from all directions!

Once a few other groups turned up, we went to our last destination and saw more amazing fish (including a pink and yellow fluoro fish, dubbed 80s fish by me) and coral. On our way back, our tour guide's day was made when we passed huge stunned fish floating in the water. He grabbed it with his bare hands, unceremoniously dropped it in the bottom of the boat and continued on with a huge smile on his face - that was his dinner sorted.

It was a fantastic day and we finished it off with a sunset dinner at a place called Sandy Bay. Very tropical island, no?

Well, that was pretty much all we did on Nusa Lembongan for the whole trip because by dinner, I'd realized that both Phil and I were burnt to a crisp. Especially me. Oh my god. Soooo sore. Sooooo dumb! We did sunscreen at the start of the day, but clearly not enough. It was THREE nights before I could lay down on my back at all. So there was a lot of sitting around for the next few days... But it was lovely and relaxing despite how little I did! That being said, I'm still all red :(

And now we're back in Bali for three more days. This morning we had 'one last' Babi Guling (suckling pig) for breakfast (yup, breakfast). The last two nights have been spent on the beach on huge beanbags to watch the sunset. I never get sick of it.

It's almost impossible not to feel sad that the adventure is almost up, but it is... We actually thought we might be stuck here this week. We had given our passport to a visa agent to get an extension on our 30 day visas three weeks ago and were promised they would be returned on the Friday before we left for Nusa Lembongan. But they weren't ready on Friday or Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. By Thursday we were starting to panic. Especially when they told us that we wouldn't get it until Friday because immigration would not release the passports.

Phil thought quickly and told them that while we understood that dealing with Indonesian immigration was difficult, if we didn't have the passport by 5pm, we would need to report it to the embassy and police, otherwise we'd be stuck in Indonesia. We had the passports back by 4.30pm. Go Phil!

Hopefully the only challenge remaining is how many massages I can fit into the remaining three days in Bali. I'll keep you posted.

Nusa Lembongan

We have arrived in Nusa Lembongan after a 2 hour trip (car - boat - car) and checked into our accommodation for the next few days. We're staying at a place called Nanuks Bungalows, which I chose because it looked peaceful and the reviews said the staff were lovely.

First impressions of the place (both the island and the bungalows) are fab. Despite my distaste for travel by sea, the boat ride was a mere 25 minutes as promised and we couldn't have got a nicer, sunnier, calmer day. It's all blue skies and gentle winds. This is the view we got when the boat first arrived:




Nice, huh? We then got into a very rusty, rickety old tray-truck for a ride to the bungalows.



It was so bumpy, this was the best shot I could get.

Our place has eight two storied bungalows with thatched bamboo roofs.




The ground floor has an outdoor bathroom




And a lovely bedroom up a steep set of stairs. My favourite feature are the day bed areas underneath each bedroom, which are fully outdoors, but shaded.



It isn't a huge place, but there's a nice saltwater pool and lovely gardens filled with birdbaths.








All I can hear are birds and the occasional boat motor from the sea which is less than 200m away. Nice.

I think today will be a low-key relaxation sort of day. Tomorrow we're thinking of a three hour snorkeling trip, if the weather is good. Unlike the Gili islands, you can't just wander into the ocean here and stumble across sea turtles.

Today is also a festival day in Bali called Kuningan, which is tied to the festival of Galungan which was last week. On Galungan, the family ancestors come to earth and stay for ten days until Kuningan, when they return to heaven. During the ten days between Galungan and Kuningan, there is a tradition of young boys grouping together with a couple dressing as a dragon and the rest playing instruments or wearing masks. They walk the streets doing mini performances and then collect donations. They've been fun to watch and Phil and I have caught a couple on our walks. Here's a kid in one of the masks:


And a couple more with their donation basket.



And the dragon:



On our way to Sanur to catch the boat, it seemed that every Balinese person was dressed for temple to celebrate. And apparently this afternoon we can walk to a village temple ten or fifteen minutes away and watch a big ceremony with a baring dance. Should be interesting!

**Sadly both the kindle and the Ricoh camera have died since we arrived in Bali in January, so it's going to be mobile phone pics from here on in.

Enjoy the weekend wherever you are!

The end is nigh...

I am referring to the end of the trip, of course. I haven't joined some doomsday cult in the last few weeks. Phil on the other hand... I'd ask him to contribute to this post, but he's chanting in the corner...

We're a mere two weeks from hitting Australian soil. Where did the last 5 and a half months go??? Seriously, it feels like it's just evaporated. I'm really glad I kept the blog, or I would have no idea where the time actually went for all those weeks and months. 

I met a ex-Sydneysider the other day who now runs a shop in Bali called Enfants de Paradis and we were talking about longer stays in Bali. She asked me whether having months away from work and everyone and everything has made me see the world in a new light. I think it has and it hasn't. A little cryptic? What I mean is that, sitting here, typing this, I don't feel like me or my world view has drastically changed. I mean I feel oodles more rested and energised, but not altered.  I thought I might get inspired by a more eastern approach - you know, yoga and meditation and such, but no, it just didn't take. 

But, in the past, each longer trip I've taken has changed my outlook in various ways and I think this trip will be the same. I guess I'm convinced that I will have fundamentally changed somewhat for having done this trip, but right now I'm not sure how... 

...

As is the case at the end of every single overseas trip I've ever done, I'm really looking forward to going home to cook. This week I've downloaded Jamie Oliver's app, the sustainable seafood guide and something called 'Ask the butcher'. This desire for home cooking usually lasts about a week after I get home and then it's back to status normal (ie. I will only contemplate cooking food that takes less than 15 minutes of active participation by me - prepping and/ or cooking). But this time will definitely be different - so she says now.... In the meantime, Phil and I have been eating out as usual... it's a little hard to cook in Bali since we have no oven or stovetop, so it's either go out to eat or eat sandwiches at home (which we also do a bit).

Since we came back from the Europe leg, we've been mostly vegetarian and eating mostly... veggies. The best places for veggie-heavy meals are Warung Ocha and Zula's vegetarian paradise (my new favourite. Oh it is so good - they make this pita with avocado, cherry tomatoes, olives and a healthy dose of zataar - it could kill you with goodness). So we've pretty much condensed the "where should we eat today" conversation to "Zula or Ocha" over the past few weeks. The two places are literally 30m away from each other, so no need to rush that vital decision... Come to think of it we should find some more creative way to choose between the two like a special vegetable divining stick made of carrot. I digress...

On 7 February, it was our 2.5 year anniversary (awww...) so we decided to try a more upmarket lunch than usual and headed out to what i think is a newish place called Mama San, a pan-Asian lounge/bar restaurant with a very funky wine display and super lush aged leather couches as chairs. It's a place that would be right at home in Melbourne, except in Melbourne there would be lines of people waiting to get in, even on a random Wednesday lunchtime whereas here we pretty much had the place to ourselves. 

It reminded me of a way upmarket Miss Chu in Exhibition St for those who know it. The food was great - we had some small bites of dim sum, steamed barramundi, steamed snapper dumplings followed by a roast duck salad and a turmeric fish salad (would you believe there was not one single friggin vegetarian dish on the menu - ah well, ce la vie, it was a special occasion). We had to take away an entire dish because there was too much, but it was all very delicious and reasonable (cheap for Australia, pricey for Bali). And funky. Made me feel almost like being at home - until we finished up and walked out into a searing heat and humidity that almost melted my face off!

I had thought in our last weeks here, there would be a flurry of "one last time" visits to our favourite places - shops, cafes, beaches etc. And there are one or two places that I'd like to go "one last time" - especially in the massage/facial department. But it's been fun to discover a few new places in our final weeks. Just around the corner from Mama San, we saw a cute little local warung tucked away called Bambuku (on Jl Sunset near corner of Jl Raya Kerobokan) and tried it out the next day. It was some of the best (and cheapest) Indonesian food I've ever eaten in Bali.  We went for a late breakfast and discovered that its a Padang place which means it serves food that is already prepared laid out in dishes at the front of the restaurant - like a buffet, but you pay (a small amount) per dish. I ate some salad thing with quail eggs in it that was just incredible. And the tofu "meatball" salady thing. Yummo. I can't believe it's taken until now to find this little gem. Just for the sake of reference, our two heaving plates and fresh juices equated to about 7 visits to Mama San. Sooo cheap.

And that evening we finally tried a great looking warung just around the corner from us called Bamboo. I'd wanted to try it out before as the emanating smells were often delicious, but it seemed to be take away only... that is until we uncharacteristically walked past it on the other side of the street and spied the second storey dining room. Doh! But for the second time that day, we were eating Indonesian food that made you sigh with satisfaction. It's funny what you can discover after cumulative months in a place.

I hadn't intended for this to be a foodie post - I blame my newly-refound passion for cooking. For a change of scene - and to distract us from the unaboidable lament of counting down our final Bali days (aaaarrgghhh, noooooo), we've decided to board a boat tomorrow morning and set sail for Nusa Lembongan, a small island nearby for a couple of nights of beach, sand, sun and snorkelling. I know you're thinking - more boats? She hated (and I mean HATED) the boats to and from Lombok. Yes, I did. I spent every second waiting for a deep ocean leak following by sinking and death... But this trip is only 25 minutes across and while I'm sure I'll cling onto the sides for dear life for every one of those 25 minutes, it's manageable from a psychological trauma perspective or so I tell myself now. The person one should feel sorry for is Phil, because although he may want to tell me that we're perfectly safe and to stop crying, for the love of god stop crying!!!!! He doesn't. He gets to hold my hand and smile at the other passengers so they don't think we're BOTH deranged. Ah happy days.

So anyway, from tomorrow we may be harder to reach for a few days, but rest assured we will be safe and well and hugging onto our denial that "megatrip" is almost done.

Feel the burn

Another week has gone by in Bali since the last post... Since there's so little time left (ok still a couple of weeks), Phil and I have been ticking a few things off the 'Things to do in Bali before we leave' list.

 

Last Sunday we ticked off walking to Canggu, which is a beachside suburb around the peninsula from where we're staying. It was a long walk, especially as the tide was super high the day we did it, meaning we couldn't walk along the beach, which is the direct route. Instead, we went inland and walked along the roads which added a few kms - probably about 12km all up.

 

The goal was to walk to Deus ex Machina's Temple of Enthusiasm. The what, you ask?? And rightly so. Deus ex Machina is a brand started by the founder of surfie brand Mambo and some guy from somewhere called Action motorcycles. So they sell... Surfboards and motorcycles - unbelievable, I know. They also sell clothes, bikes (not just any bikes, but fixed gear bikes with no brakes, which as everyone knows are the only bikes to have these days) and accessories. They actually make really nice bags and wallets (Phil's dad bought a great bag while he was here) and they also have a cafe at their two stores in Bali. One store is about 4km walk from our place in Seminyak and the other store is in Canggu, this being the Temple of Enthusiasm. I had heard that on Sunday nights they have live music and food and a bar, so we thought we'd walk down on Sunday and check it out. 

 

It was a great walk down the beach and then inland through streets and villages and past gorgeous rice paddies and hundreds of chickens, dogs and cows. We had lunch at a place called Desa Seni, a retreat with a focus on yoga and organic food. You can stay there in traditional village houses (which looked cute) or just go for yoga sessions, or try the cafe. Since yoga has really not been something I've leaned towards, we just went in to try the cafe and... wow. It was worth the trip. Such delicious, fresh food. I had a nasi campur which is a plate with rice and small portions of a variety of foods. It had delicious battered snapper and chilli prawns that were just divine. I'd definitely give it a try if you're in the mood for some fresh organic yumminess in a seriously gorgeous garden setting. And they didn't raise an eyebrow at our disheveled selves...

 

By the time we got to Deus itself, we'd been walking for hours and I was pretty sweaty/ exhausted/ living on borrowed time, so we just had a drink and a bite to eat and didn't end up staying for the live music, which started several hours later. But they did have an art exhibition there with some awesome artwork.

 

We couldn't resist buying a couple of unframed prints, which weren't available on the day, necessitating a need to revisit the following day. Which would have been Monday. We finally made it today, as in Friday. Impressive, no? 

 

Actually, it took us all week to get back because I wanted to wait for a day when the tide is low so we could walk the whole way along the beach. And today we did. And it was a much more civilised 8km walk. Although kind of sunny towards the end, leading to quite nasty sunburns on both of us. Ouch. So red, so sore!

 

Anyway, it was worth the trip, we got our little prints and had a nice walk by the water. Well, mostly nice. There was a washed up puffer fish on the sand at one point, which was interesting to see up close. And cows grazing(?) on the sand. I really wanted to see a big crab on the beach, but instead saw a (dead) washed up cat... It was not nice. Unsurprisingly, I squealed when I saw it. Which made Phil, who had not noticed it, turn around. And then I got in trouble for bringing it to his attention!!! 'Why do you have to be so expressive when you see something?', he asked. Truly...

 

We are now having some dinner at Zula's Vegetarian Paradise, a veggie place that has become a favourite over the last few months. And because the all-time favourite place we were planning to go to, the namesake of this blog, Warung Ocha, had broken wifi. We are so fickle...

 

 

Happy Australia Day!!

Happy Australia Day to all my fellow Aussies wherever you may be in the world...

So far, we have celebrated by having lunch at Sushi Tei, a Japanese sushi train restaurant in Kuta. But my heart is firmly planted with thoughts of home (even if my stomach is closer to Tokyo). I was going to say something about home; that despite all the travelling we do - and will hopefully continue to do in coming years - that I love Australia and life in Melb and have not found anywhere that offers more... but you already know how awesome Aus is, so I don't need to bang on about it.

Not much going on with us here in Bali this week. The monsoon-style rains have slowed a bit and consequently there is less rubbish piled up on the beach (there were huge piles of trash all down the beach when we arrived because heavy rains had washed out the drains of several villages) After a few cooler days, it's feeling really really hot again! Might be time for a day at the beach!

There has been lots and lots of reading, a few long walks and consumption of endless veggie-centric meals to try and expunge the effects of the German sausage feast we partook in over in Europe...

It's become noticeably quieter tourism-wise since we came back (I guess school hols are over, or almost over) and I'm hoping that our last weeks here will be pretty low key and quiet. We haven't finalised plans for the last few weeks of the trip yet, but it's likely that we'll spend a few final days in Singapore before coming home. So close, so close.

Now would be the time to make any souvenir requests via the comments or email. Anyone for a Batik sarong???




- Posted using a healthy dose of Aussie spirit

Back in Bali, baby

We have already been back in Bali for a whole week and an event-filled week at that. Time is absolutely flying by with only five weeks left before we're back on home soil. Unbelievable, I know.

We flew into Bali last Friday morning about two hours ahead of Phil's dad, Klaus and his wife, Cornelia who were dropping by for 5 days after a four week trip to Australia. Which meant that we got stuck right into our favourite Bali places whilst showing Klaus & Cornelia around. It was really nice and energising - I think if left to my own devices, I would have slothed around for a couple of days, but instead we went out for lovely breakfasts at my favourite places - Warung Ocha and Cafe Bali - and headed up to Ubud for two nights at the gorgeous Sawah Sunrise in the middle of the rice fields. It was a great visit, although jetlag saw me napping for a couple of hours every day while poor Phil couldn't get to sleep at all!

We visited the monkey forest in Ubud and watched the adorable baby monkeys chase each other around. Also a highlight were dinners at Sari Organik, an organic restaurant in the middle of the ricefields near our accommodation. Not only is the food healthy and delicious, but we sat and ate with a chorus of nighttime sounds (frogs, geckos) in the background and a sprinkling of fireflies in the rice fields which was spectacular! They are open for dinner, but close pretty early and on our last night we stayed so long that the staff actually came over and said that while we were welcome to sit and talk until the morning, they were going home. And they did, leaving us to slowly walk back in total darkness along the path home kept company by the fireflies.

Back in Legian we shopped and walked by the beach and went out for dinners and they made the most out of the plentiful massage opportunities here. It was so lovely to see them and we were really touched that they made the (frankly pain in the ass) trip to Bali from Singapore on the way home to Germany.

The visit was over in a flash and come Wednesday afternoon, Phil and I were on our own again for the first time since early December! We caught up on things like haircuts and some DVDs and are now going to spend the next three weeks in Bali chilling out and doing a few things we haven't yet done... One of which was to visit Warung Asia for dinner, a well-reviewed Thai restaurant very close by. So we went on Thursday night and it was great... Until yesterday morning when I realised something I ate had not agreed with me at all. Cue a whole day Friday spent on the couch watching DVDs. Ah well, no biggie! Although it is rather cruel that since I have been detoxing since we arrived back in Bali (no booze, no caffeine, no meat, no sugar), I managed to get sick from vegetable freaking soup!!

As promised (to myself), I have finished my list of European highlights below:

Hamburg highlights:

- Visiting the Hamburg fish market at 7.30am, especially because it was our first snow, and first 8.30 am German beer!
- Realising that Hamburg had about fifteen different Xmas markets and walking through several of them on the edges of the beautiful Alster lake
- Spending time with Phil's grandmother and her signature apple cake

Mougins highlights

- Making home craft Xmas decorations out of leftover wrapping paper
- Xmas Day as it should be - sleeping in, big lunch, little walk, lazing around
- The fab French champers; mumm, veuve, Moët, anyone??
- Day trip to Italy - San Remo is divine!
- Shopping in Cannes
- Blue skies and 16 degrees every day!!

Baden Baden highlights:

- Soaking in the hot springs for hours
- De kleine knappe bar - our local bar complete with beers from a monestary and cheerful, friendly locals
- The deer stew - OMG if you'd tasted it, you might move there
- Crazy NYE rockets and fireworks (nearly setting Phil on fire!)

Munich highlights:

- The Rattlesnake - the supercool rockabilly bar where there is a train set up to deliver tequila shots to the band
- The mega-Boss shop - Phil in suits. Need I say more?
- Lunch at the Schneider Weisse beer hall - a place where a dish of five sausages and sauerkraut is an entree!!
- Our last group dinner at Kloister Andechs, a monestary that has been brewing beer for hundreds of years. They serve pork knuckle and pork belly. German Heaven.

- Posted using happy memories!

Location:Jalan Padma Utara,Kuta,Indonesia

Singapore stopover

We have arrived in Singapore this evening to a balmy 28 degrees. We're here for one night before flying to Bali tomorrow to meet up with Phil's dad and stepmother, Cornelia. I think we'll beat them there by 2 hours! We're staying in the same Singapore hotel we had on our first two days of the trip because it's super easy to get to from the airport and there's a 24-7 food court downstairs, which is handy for an early start in the morning.

All this means that the European adventure is over. It's incredible, when we were planning the trip, the Europe part seemed soooo far away, and now it's passed.

Our last few days in Munich were lovely. We did have a last group dinner at Kloister Andechs on Sunday night - a monestary and brewery which has been operating for hundreds of years. In the dining hall, they have a cabinet with spaces for steins (the one litre beer cups) which you can permanently keep there (locked up, sadly). Apparently, they are so coveted, the spaces are willed from father to son!! It was fun note on which to end our travels with Nick and Jo, who headed back home via London.

Phil and I headed into town, dropping Nick and Jo at the airport train, on Monday morning and I had plans for some more shopping, but flagged early and headed back for a lazy day. On Tuesday, Chris took Phil skiing / snowboarding in Austria for the day. Having never tried skiing, I opted out, not wanting to hold them up from getting some proper time on the mountain. Thankfully, they had an awesome day with no injuries and I pottered about drinking coffees and reading. We had a last dinner with both Chris and Niko and said all the farewells. And come Wednesday, it was time to go!

I think the most common question you get when returning from an overseas trip is, 'what were the highlights?'. I can tell that after six more weeks in Bali, I won't be saying anything more insightful than, 'not too cold, beer was good'.

So while it's fresh in my mind, I thought I'd jot down the highlights (and lowlights, if I can think of any) of our European leg. I'll do half now, half later. We do have to get up at 6.30am to fly to Bali tomorrow... Ouch.

London Highlights:
- Shopping in Brick Lane markets for an £11 tweed coat (so warm it felt like being hugged by two polar bear simultaneously), cute teapot earrings (sadly lost on the way) and handknitted Xmas decorations.
- Taking bus to my dad's old neighbourhood in east London, on which a group of rough primary school aged girls yelled to each other "is he a pedo?" at Phil when he was taking photos out of the window. Also on the same day, trying the famed pie, mash and liquor of my dad's childhood. Ugh. Seriously.
- Ocean colour scene - A good band performing a great album with an enthused British crowd
- Southbank Xmas markets (especially the life sized snow globe that you could climb into and have your photo taken with sheaths of white plastic blown in the air)
- Finally trying out some amazing Windian food at the mango room in Camden

Brussels Highlights:
- The beer, the beer, the beer
- Phil's vending machine experience in the pub - trying to buy a can of nuts, getting 50 cents stuck in the wrong spot, a very unamused bartenderess and a lot of helpful locals armed with pocketknives
- Live sheep in the nativity scene in the centre of town - picture a life sized nativity scene with sculptures for all the characters and animals... Except throw in a few huge, sleeping sheep
- Europe's worst light show in the main square - basically flashlights on long poles to the sound of opera. There was a better lighting setup at the cash converters!!

Amsterdam Highlights:
-Cocktails on the 26th floor of the Okura hotel with city wide view to celebrate Nick and Jo's engagement!!
- Chilling out with all in our gorgeous apartment
- Visiting Utrecht for the first time in ten years and finding that nothing had changed

Berlin Highlights:
- Alexanderplatz carnival - especially a ride on a giant ferris wheel (the largest ravelling ferris wheel in Europe)
- Feeling very sophisticated, drinking vintage champers at the Veuve Cliquot bar
- Jo's excitement at finding maccas vegie burger and veggie hot dog in the midst of a sausage-heavy Germany
- Potsdamer platz toboggan ride - imagine a man made icy slope, large inflated rings to sit in, and Jo and I sliding down at crazy fast speed, me screaming the whole way down. I think Nick took video - I'll be keeping that one under wraps.

Okay, that's it for now. We're still all good, gearing up for the last six weeks in Bali!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Happy new year!!

Happy New Year!!!

Okay, it's a little late for new years greetings, but better late than never, right!?! We've been pretty busy since the last post, so it's hard to know where to start... Anyway, I suspect no matter how I do it, this will be a longish post.

In the last post we were in Mougins and now we are in Munich and in between we had a long and internet-free stay in Baden-Baden. It seems that the blog is always a bit behind, but I'll try and recap. 

We did end up making it to Cannes for a lovely afternoon. It was our last full day in France and we were keen to visit the perfume factories in nearby Grasse, so we piled in the rental car (kindly driven by Nick who did an amazing job of driving both in France and Italy) in the morning and headed out. Our timing was bad for a guided tour, so we wandered through the Fragonard perfume factory on our own, smelling all the different scents and checking out the traditional perfume making equipment.

And, as is the way, we ended up in a gift shop filled with travel-sized bottles of all different perfumes. There were also amazing smelling candles - the brioche one was so realistic that you'd be craving brioche every time you lit it!! I was tempted, but ultimately left it there - having once had a brandy custard smelling candle at home, I know how dangerous it can be to one's diet to have that smell wafting around. 

In the afternoon, we switched directions and headed towards Cannes for a bit of sightseeing. I had expected Cannes to feel like a super wealthy and pristine town, but while it had some nice aspects, and lots of designer shopping, the town itself was a fairly regular looking city. We were again blessed with gorgeous weather and a stunning coastline. 

We spent the afternoon wandering around the town, checking out all the designer shops - Prada, Chanel, miu miu, Louis Vuitton - and checking out the markets selling vintage designer sunglasses and huge dinnerware and silverware  sets. We even stopped to play with remote control boats set up in one of the fountains!! 

Boat obstacle course

Sadly, there were no Clooney sightings, but Jo and I managed to get a little dress shopping in and each left Cannes with a NYE-worthy black dress...

And on our last night in Mougins, we went out for a French meal at an atmospheric little bistro close to the apartment. There hasn't been much in the way of restaurant dinners on this trip. We've mostly either eaten at our apartments, picking up great breads, cheeses and cold meats, or eaten on the go (especially from the Christmas markets), or cooked up some simple meals. It's been fun wandering through foreign supermarkets and picking up delicious cheeses, breads, wine etc. that are not only yummy, but half the price (or less in the case of beer) than you'd find in Australia. Which has allowed us to splurge a bit on some Moët, and Veuve... And Mumm - but I digress. The point was that we were all keen to try and proper French meal (and wine) and it was a great way to end the French leg of the trip. Phil had a steak that recalibrated the standard and the creme brûlée at the end was delish!

The next day (30th Dec), was our longest travel day so far. The distance between Mougins and our destination, Baden-Baden wasn't that huge. But as Phil pointed out, we were travelling from one small town to another small town, so the connections aren't as great. Loading up on coffee and croissants from the local bakery, we were on our way by 9am, first driving to Nice Airport, the flying to Basel airport, then an airport bus to Freiburg, and finally two trains to Baden-Baden and a bus to the apartment. By the time we arrived it was after 5pm, but having the trip broken up into so many components was actually good for combatting travel fatigue. 

Baden-Baden is a small town in Germany, on the edge of the Black Forest and only 20km from the French border. It is famous as a spa town with hot springs at the centre and as a leisure destination for the super wealthy in need of a winddown. Is the sort of place where you pass a gorgeous old hotel, only to realise it is not a hotel at all, but a house owned by the Rothschilds or similar. One of the main attractions is the Caracalla thermal hot springs which has several warm hot springs pools, both indoors and outdoors, a sauna, series of steam rooms, a whole day spa, sun beds, solarium beds and more. But it's also a lovely place to just walk around and window shop - you can find antique and super deluxe watches, art deco furniture stores (all furniture is original and barely used). It's not a large town, but it has a huge casino, opera house, theatre, modern art museum etc. It's also bordered on all sides by the black forest mountains (well, mini mountains) many of which are strewn with wineries. 

Sounds nice, huh?? Luckily for us, Phil's grandmother has a flat in Baden-Baden which she has generously lent us on a few previous occasions (and of course on this trip also) and we have loved staying there. I think it's one of the most relaxing places I've ever been. 

This is the view from the front of the apartment - you can see the edge of the black forest a few hundred metres away.

All that description of Baden-Baden above may go some way to explain why we didn't actually do a whole lot in the six nights we stayed there. It's just a gorgeous place to go and soak up the vibe, walk through the streets, stop for a coffee and breathe deeply. 

We were very fortunate that Phil's dad had organised with the neighbour to let us in on our first night and that she had opened up the apartment, and most importantly turned on the heating for us, before we arrived on our first night. After the gorgeous weather on the French Riviera, we were chilled to the bone by the time we arrived. 

Our first day in Baden-Baden was new years eve, so we walked into town to find out what we might do. I knew there was a black tie ball at the casino and looked into it, but to judge from last years photos it's a very formal affair with the average age of revellers close to sixty. Perhaps not quite what we were looking for... It turned out that the bars in the town centre were mostly set price dinner affairs, so we decided to try a bar closer to our own apartment (which is 2.5km from the city centre). We found a local bar, with great beer, that quickly grew on us and we spent an hour or two there, but the owners wanted their own NYE celebration too, so we ended up at the apartment for the latter part of the night with beer and champagne, celebrating together. 

At midnight, some of the other tenants in the block asked if we minded if they set off fireworks in the back garden. No problems, right?? Except, these little older ladies had giant rockets that went whizzing all over the place and nearly took out Phil's foot! He was all calm and I ran and hid inside, behind the couch!!! You can buy almost any kind of fireworks in Germany and from our vantage point up on a hill, we could see huge fireworks in every direction, and hear rockets exploding from every second house. All the neighbours came out and watched, and there was a really nice community atmosphere to complement the very real fear of being hit by a stray rocket!!

After a day of concentrated recovery on 1st Jan, we did make it to the hot springs the following day and spent three very chilled out hours paddling around the pools. They have a steam sauna room, which is like an aromatherapy facial for your whole body in ten minutes and a similar steam bath but with brine that was not my favourite. I even tried out the solarium bed for ten minutes... my Bali tan is all but gone!! On our last night, we all (sans Nick) went again in the evening for a final soak and it really was divine. We were all keyed up for the sauna, until we realised it was a clothes free zone... I guess naked sauna-ing something you have to be introduced to earlier in life than 30!!

What else?? We went to a traditional restaurant for lunch and sampled amazing deer stew, spent another night in De Kleine Knappe pub near the apartment, spent an afternoon, wandering around the town, doing a little browsing, stopping for nice coffee, went out for coffee and delicious cakes at one of the many tea houses. Jo and I had a seaweed facial at a day spa that was amazing... Soo much collagen my face was tingling!

We arrived in Munich on the 5th, on the eve of the day of the holy three kings (who are apparently also known as the three wise men). We arrived in a whirl of snow in Munich to the prospect of a relaxing public holiday, which in this part of the world means nothing is open - no shops, no supermarkets, nothing. We are staying at the house of Phil's dad and his wife, Cornelia in Munich - they are not hosting us in person because they are in Australia at the moment, at our place! House swaps are great, although quietly, I think we are getting the better deal! 

Phil's stepbrothers, Chris and Niko are in town though and on our arrival, Niko picked us up from the station, took us home via the supermarket and then took us out to the Rattlesnake. The rattlesnake is a rockabilly bar that Niko both works at part-time and goes to often. Phil had told me much about the place and promised great food and live music and delivered both in spades. The place was awesome. Great food, including an epic veggie burrito for Jo and the biggest spare ribs I've ever seen.

 More ribs than a sane person would eat in a month.

But the highlight was the band who played classic 50s rock headed by a lead singer whose voice embodied Elvis. The bar has a train set which runs the length of the walls and is used to deliver tequila shots to the band members along with requests. The place was absolutely packed with people who got right into dancing and drinking and it was a really really fun night. 

The following morning we woke up to a world covered in snow - very pretty!!! And it has snowed at various points of our Munich stay which has been gorgeous. 

Our first proper day was the public holiday, which as I mentioned earlier is taken very seriously in Bavaria, so knowing nothing much would be open, we headed into town for some sightseeing. 

Southern Germany is a very traditional place. People wear traditional outfits to formal events, and the streets are peppered with Bavarian hats with hunting regalia or feathers in the brim. So it was no surprise to find a parade in the middle of Munich on the holy three kings day in honour of the original inhabitants of the area. Including a rather irritating man dressed as a court jester who was skipping around rubbing ash on the noses of unfortunate bystanders (including Jo who was actually chased by this strange character and ashed!!)

Munich has a gorgeous city centre.

We went past the world famous Hofbrauhaus  which is a beer hall where you can get traditional food and beer. But Niko steered us towards a different - way nicer beer hall in central Munich called the Schneider Weisse brauhaus where we drank delicious wheat beers and ate very traditional German food. My dish of five different sausages was an appetiser. Seriously. 

After a look around and a sizeable lunch, we headed back home for a few hours only. Turns out it was Tobi's 30th birthday that night (Tobi is Chris' friend who stayed with us in Bali in November) and he invited all of us to his birthday dinner at a Greek restaurant! So at 6pm, Chris picked us all up and took us out for a night of Greek wine, ouzo and grilled meats!!  I think we got back at midnight and I definitely felt the combination of beer hall and wine and ouzo by the end of night!!!

It's actually Jo and Nick's last day in Munich today (it's gone sooooo fast) and they are packing up as I type. So we had to pack quite a lot into our few days in Munich. So despite the excesses of the previous day, Jo and I got up at 9am yesterday and hit Munich's shopping streets for the day. Jo wanted to try and get some work suits and so we shopped for clothes and left Phil and Nick with a list of other items (good German knives being up the top of the list). The sales were incredible and we shopped from 10am - 3 pm without a break. 

By the time we caught up with Phil and Nick we were starving, and stopped for lunch. Which turned out to be a fortuitous energy burst because the shopping day had just started to crank up... We decided to head to Maximilianstrasse - the most expensive/ exclusive shopping strip in Munich. Just to have a look. That is until we found that Hugo Boss was having a 50% off everything sale. Coupling that with the amazing dip in the Euro/ surge of the AUD and the lower prices of Boss suits in Germany anyway, I think we all actually MADE money by buying up big. Phil bought, of his own volition, two suits, three shirts and a pair of pants. IN ONE GO. This is more clothing than he buys in an average year. Perhaps two years. I think his wardrobe is now a solid third of Boss. I am still pinching myself!!! Oh and by the time you convert the Euro to $$ and take away the VAT, it cost less than one Hugo Boss suit in Australia, on sale. Oh happy days!! Joelle has dubbed it the Tony Danza day (ie. who's the boss?). And it is hard to tell who is the boss since Jo and Nick also came out with a pile of sharp suits... And even a dressing gown!

And today has been pretty quiet but very Bavarian at the same time. Niko came by this morning with a packet of Weisswurst sausages which are traditionally eaten with pretzels and beer pre-midday. They were delicious and we would not have gotten ourselves organised if it hadn't been for Niko, our consummate Bavarian host!

Tonight the plan is to have a last dinner together at Kloister Andechs, a monestary that is also a brewery.

Phil and I are in Munich until Wednesday and then we head back to Bali to meet his dad and stepmother for a few days. 

BTW - apologies for the lack of emails to all. Will be remedied soon!!

- Posted using the beer that is now flowing through my veins