Nina+Markus

holamundo

Nina+Markus

Hola mundo! - We are Nina and Markus. We are from Lake Thun/Switzerland and we are outdoor junkies. Whenever possible we spend our time travelling, climbing, ice-climbing, trekking or snowboarding/skiing. However, our life has turned completely when we met our spiritual master Paramahamsa Sri Swami Vishwananda in the year 2013. In the meantime we try to travel to places where he is (and gives blessings to people) as often as possible. From travelling in the outside because we were searching for something, we are now travelling for meeting him, enjoying his presence and travelling "inside". It is a wonderful change and we are thankful for every minute.

"The path is made by walking"

And here is an overview of our trips:

- 1 year RTW in 2008/2009: around the southern hemisphere. We visited Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Tansania.

- 2010/2011: SE Asia - Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia (both, the Peninsula and Borneo) and Thailand.

- 2012: Thailand and Malaysia and some shorter trips in Europe

- 2013: Markus in Thailand alone on the road (Nina was sick)

- 2014: South India - the first time on the subcontinent.

- 2014/2015: return to South India for another 7 week!

- 2015/2016: for 2 month we discovered the very central parts of India and finally visited the Taj Mahal

- 2016: Singapore, Malaysia and India again

- 2017: Great Britain, Portugal, Germany, Northern India

- 2018: Northern Italy, France

- 2019: South Africa, Poland, Portugal, Turkey and Indonesia

- 2020 + 2021: home (Switzerland) plus some short trips to Italy and Germany

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Sicily is amazing - it is like India in Europe!

Europe » Italy » Sicily » Palermo October 14th 2021

beautiful monastry of San Benedetto di Moro near Palermo

holamundo

It is long ago that you have read from us. But we used the situation in the world to first take intensive care of our company. And then we took the chance to explore more our own country where we live in. So, just be the end of last year we finally hopped on a flight again since a loooong time and charged our batteries in Siciliy, the amazing island in the south of Italy. If you want to get more infos about Switzerland, if you want to see some off-the-beaten-path experiences in Switzerland we warmly invite you to subscribe to our brandnew youtube-chanel . Here we have weekly vlogs about our live in Switzerland: places we visit, practical things you need to know living/traveling in Switzerland and much more coming up in the next months. ... read more

cactus fruit - delicious treat in Sicily

We might call this town our second home - been here so many times: Kuala Lumpur

Asia » Malaysia » Wilayah Persekutuan » Kuala Lumpur January 21st 2020

on the Helipad - enjoying the sunset with a mango juice

holamundo

It was another amazing 3 hours flight over beautiful Indonesia. We spotted Mount Agung on Bali, the crater lake of Mount Ijen and Mount Merapi on Java. There were no clouds, no wind just sunshine when we touched down in Kuala Lumpur at 10 am. It was the 6th (or 7th - we lost the overview) time touching down in our favourite city in Asia - but never before it was that smooth. Normally due to weather conditions, rains and thunderstorms touching down in Kuala Lumpur has a bit of a rollercoaster feeling. But this time: perfectly calm. We could exchange our remaining indonesia rupiahs in malaysian ringits, bought some fresh fruits for breakfast at a little store and went down on the ground floor to catch the bus to KL Sentral. It is by far ... read more

Sri Ranganath Temple in Kajang - attending evening prayers

in front of Lord Murugan in the Batu Caves

Gili Gede, Gili Renggit, Gili Layar - 3 of many secret Gilis around Lombok which have this out of this world feeling

Asia » Indonesia » Lombok January 17th 2020

what an amazing world of Gilis around Sekotong

holamundo

Around the main island of Lombok there are many, many Gilis (=islands). Some of them inhabited, some just some rocks, bushes - but all having wonderful white sands, turquoise waters and stunning views. Being on search for a nice Gili we finally decided to go on a bigger one, which nontheless is relatively untouched with only few small private bungalows and no real tourist infrastructure. It was Gili Gede in the very far south-west of Lombok. From Senggigi we took a grab car and passing by Lembar, which is the main ferry port when coming from Bali. We reached the sleepy but beautiful village of Sekotong. A bit outside the village there is a little harbour. We got off the grab car and stood there in the midday heat on the beach with our backpacks. In ... read more

chilling in our hammock at Hula Hoop on Gili Gede

we could do this all day long: just relax and sail around this beautiful islands

Heaven on earth is called Coco Beach on Lombok

Asia » Indonesia » Lombok » Sengigi January 14th 2020

the tropical paradies on Lombok: Pantai Pandanan

holamundo

Travelling in Indonesia now since 3 weeks, we only had 8 days left with our free visa on arrival. Having seen and experienced so many incredible things in the last weeks, basically only 1 thing was missing: a super relaxed beach time in a tropical paradies where we could simply enjoy the hours watching the ocean, doing some meditation and just be. There are many options for this in Indonesia, but we decided to go to Lombok as this was the cheapest and easiest option for the remaining time and for both of us, Lombok was a new destination. Well, I (Nina) have been to Gili Trawangan and Gili Meno 9 years ago, but I never explored Lombok island itself. So early morning, we took a propellers flight from Labuanbajo to Lombok Praya. The sky was ... read more

Coco Beach - this place is like heaven on earth

Flores is more than just Komodo Dragons

Asia » Indonesia » Flores » Labuanbajo January 9th 2020

the mighty Cunca Wulang

holamundo

Our main aim was not different from all the other tourists - of course we came to Flores to see the Komodo Dragons. How lucky we were that we also saw many turtles, mantas and a fascinating underwater world! That was already more than we had hoped for. Before planning our trip we thought of spending much more time on flores. I mean, this island is really still in its development and naturally it seemed to be incredible. But when we further planned we realised that the risk of getting dengue AND malaria is really high especially in rainy season. With dengue, you have the problem everywhere in Southeast Asia. But a high risk of malaria is a bit too much. Since 7 years we do not take any chemical medicine and completely rely on homoeopathics. ... read more

beach in Labuanbajo at the Puri Sands Hotel

Last chance to see....

Asia » Indonesia » Flores January 7th 2020

a really pink beach on Padar Island

holamundo

Many, many years ago, in a very difficult phase of my life I was reading the book "Last chance to see" written by Douglas Adams.For those who know this book: Douglas Adam is travelling together with Marc Carwadine to see animals around the globe who are critically endangered. One of his destinations was the Komodo National Parc with the Komodo dragons. It was such a fascinating, funny and exotic story - I had the feeling that I must go there some day. I was so curious to see these animals that look like being from another time or another planet. They live very remote (well, at least when you come from Europe), it is not that easy to get there and it is a superexotic place. Well, nearly. Things have changed in recent years and going ... read more

a dream coming true - us and a Komodo Dragon!

Never heard of Seraya in Bali? Great, that's a place for us...

Asia » Indonesia » Bali » Amed January 6th 2020

beach time at White Sand Beach

holamundo

In the search of the traditional side of Bali, we have been quite succesful by visiting Sudaji in the North and staying in the ricefields in Tampaksiring. So our last stop in Bali was planned in the south, well, in the south-east that means. Because the south-west (being the centre of the mass tourism industry) was a no-go area for us. For whatever reason we found the widespread village of Seraya on the rocky coast in the very east. We had a private driver (the owner of "our" treehouse in Tampaksiring) who took us to Seraya. It was a beautiful drive across the countryside from Tampaksiring via Gianyar, Sideman and Amlapura. We passed very nice villages. Our driver was supernervous as it was extremly windy that day. So a lot of branches from coconut trees fell ... read more

enjoying our welcome drink at the Frangipani Inn in Seraya

Living in a wheeping bamboo treehouse and fighting our way through congested Ubud

Asia » Indonesia » Bali » Ubud January 4th 2020

chilling with a dragonfruit juice at Gunung Kawi

holamundo

I loved the region of Ubud 9 years ago - that was the only part in Bali which really got under my skin. So, of course, I wanted to share this experience this time with Markus. That is why we came here. But beforehand I was warned a bit by many vlogs - Ubud seemed to have changed quite a bit. Still all vloggers come here and stay longterm in Ubud or Canggu and rave about it. But watching different vlogs, I could see a Bali and especially Ubud which I did not like (traffic chaos, too many people in one place, fancy modern shops and cafes, far too many artificial instram spots). So, we were curious to come here and see what it was for us. The day we left Sudaji in the north was ... read more

little hidden waterfall around Gunung Kawi

Remote village in North Bali - hard to find, but there are still some spiritual and "real" corners left on this island

Asia » Indonesia » Bali January 1st 2020

Zanzan, Putu and us

holamundo

You realise that you are off the beaten track when your destination is not listed in travelblog :-D - just joking....... After a terrible start in Bali we hoped for better. To be honest, we had spent long hours at home looking for some remote places to find a Bali how it was many, many years ago. This is definitely impossible and you realise that the minute you have arrived in a remote village which already has a 5G antenna. But, I guess, we came as close to the real Bali as it is still possible. We definitely lucked out. We stayed at Omunity and were greeted very warmly by Zanzan, the owner, and his wife Putu. Omunity was founded by Zanzan in 2010. Its highest goal is to make it a green sustainable place for ... read more

on our terrasse - did we tell you, it was rainy season :-)?

Not the best start in Bali - will it be the same like 9 years ago?

Asia » Indonesia » Bali » Pemuteran December 28th 2019

deer having a bath on Menjangan island

holamundo

By ferry we arrived in Bali and set foot on the island in Gilimanuk, the very northwest of Bali. To be honest, I (Nina) was sceptical about coming back to Bali. I had visited the island 9 years ago and stayed in Ahmed, Lovina, Ubud, Padangbai and Seminyak. I remember it to be full of tourists, to be faced to constant hassle about taxi prices (and horendous prices for everything in general) and well, what to say - I did not get the Bali groove at that time. But as Bali is a Hindu Island, we wanted to give it a second try. Our first impression was really bad. I wrote about the taxi-bus-situation in Gilimanuk in the last blog. But finally we arrived in Pemuteran safely by taxi in the end. We had chosen this ... read more

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