http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , Indonesia en-us Thu, 03 Dec 09 13:21:55 +0000 Thu, 03 Dec 09 13:21:55 +0000 Siwaratri is known as ldquoNight of Shivardquo and is celebrated on the dark moon of the seventh based on the Balinese lunar calendar system a day which usually falls in the month of January. This is an auspicious time for introspection and meditation during which the Hindus of Bali pray for forgiveness of their earthly sins and support and strenght from Shiva in order to reach their higher http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/blog-457815.html A sweet panorama of Maumere is sunset which situated at western area from the capital of Sikka regency. At the top of hill you can enjoy how quite a hill and how beautiful sun on the west hill in the evening. On Sundays there many people come to the beach for swimming and snorkeling there. Thatrsquos Tanjung. Opposite the beach there is a hill with a cross stone which is built by a number of http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Flores/Maumere/blog-457494.html Een korte blog over mijn heerlijk weekendje met papa hier in Banda Aceh.Door een annulering van een vlucht enzo was er donderdag namiddag ineens een verandering van de plannen. Door het offerfeest was iedereen op donderdag na half 3 gestopt met werken en was het dus even hectisch om de chauffeur te contacteren. Maar na een hoop telefoontjes van Ingrid kwam het uiteindelijk in orde. Vrijdag was he http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sumatra/Banda-Aceh/blog-457145.html Have you ever come to Maumere How is it like Dusty Really Maumere is well known as a dusty town in NTT province Indonesia. The town is the capital of Sikka regency which has 180 km square. In 1700s the name of Maumere had not been heard. At the time there was a region to deal in business among original habitants of Sikkaness Bugis Makasar and Dutch which named Alok Wolokoli. The r http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Flores/Maumere/blog-457102.html I've been in Indonesia for over 3 months now and I've been busy busy busy hence the lack of blog action The workload at school is massive which leaves me pretty wiped out most evenings I've got just about enough energy to heat up my dinner prepared by the maid of course watch some tv or a fake DVD and then it's bedtime what a crazy life I leadThe whole maid and driver thing is star http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/blog-456603.html In the first week of June 2009 I arrived after a 37 hour journey to Makassar in southern Sulawesi by a massive overloaded Pelni ship. Thousands of people piled off pushing and shoving their way each one needing to be the first one down the narrow stairway onto the concrete pier below. I couchsurfed with a wonderful and kind guy in town and the night I chose to do so I was invited to a fancy http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Tana-Toraja/blog-456401.html We took the 20 minute ferry from Bali to Java early in the morning. Even though the islands are so close distancewise they seem very different in many aspects. Bali is mostly Hindu whereas Java is mostly Muslim. We learned later on that Java used to be Hindu then Buddhist and now is Muslim. The people of Java take on the religion of their Sultan and most of them have elements of all three re http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Java/blog-455778.html Un autre coin du monde que je ne connaissais pas m'a interpell dernirement et Agathe et moi avons dcid de prendre nos trois semaines de vacance de novembre en Indonsie. J'ai toujours t beaucoup plus attire par l'Afrique que par l'Asie dans les dernires annes mais le fait d'habiter maintenant en Europe et par consquent de me rapprocher un peu m'a fait rencontrer beaucoup de gens qui on http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/blog-454755.html So we left Japan after a quick day of fish and sightseeing and were off on the longest travel days. We flew from Tokyo Japan to Hanoi Vietnam. We arrived in Hanoi at about 1030pm local time and not having Visa's we were planning on spending the night in the airport. After about and hour and a half of negotiating with the immigration officer on duty we were allowed to stay in the airport overn http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/Ubud/blog-454358.html Arrived at Kuta Townhouse around 1ish after a little of a nightmare for the driver trying to navigate the gang between the two poppies Irsquom not 100 sure hersquod been down there before either as he is from Sanur.First impressions for me of the Townhouses......all I could think of what are all the rave reviews about This was not really what I was expecting. Looking out from the reception http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/Kuta/blog-454323.html At first sight the title above seems to be written in Gibberish. That is for people living outside of Indonesia and Malaysia. The only thing I did was use some words in lsquoBahasa Indonesiarsquo the standard language of Indonesia.Because of the Dutch colonization many Dutch words were readily taken into the Indonesian language. The title has two of them lsquokokirsquo is derived from http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/Ubud/blog-454309.html Its holiday time once again for me Irsquom off to Bali for 7 days with Lisa Jenny Jennyrsquos sister Christine. We got really cheap fares to Bali with Air Asia when they first started flying from Perth to Denpasar. As this is my 3rd holiday this year the girls agreed to go lsquobudgetrsquo so after lots of searching on the Internet I came up with the Tegal Sari in Ubud and the Kuta T http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/Ubud/blog-454141.html Saturday 14th November 2009The Bintan trip was never part of our travel forecast for 2009. Ideas flew by during one of the nights in Halong Bay. Since none of us had left our footprints on the island we decided to give it a go. 1 month later we were on the island. Slight changes were made to the travel line up as SS was seconded to Shanghai for her business trip and Mapletree was simply caught http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Riau-Archipelago/Bintan/blog-453858.html To say we have been tardy in posting a blog would be an understatement I will therefore attempt to cover the last month or so and keep it concise...sort of.Over the past few weeks we a traveled to Bali for 4 fun filled jam packed days with Mike Rita b Debated our job situation here in Australia at nauseum c Started to plan our trip to the final destination home d welcomed Dani Sheena' http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/Nusa-Dua/blog-453839.html Anantara Seminyak Resort Spa BaliAwaken to the rustle of a sea breeze through coconut palms. Toast the worldfamous Seminyak sunsets from your private balcony. Dive into fabled Balinese culture and unique island discoveries from your luxurious Bali resort outpost on the island's most soughtafter stretch of shore. Anantara's Bali resort at Seminyak features 59 suites of approximately 80 square http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/Seminyak/blog-453585.html I have travelled to Bali many times and have sponsored a family there for 30 years After reading Elizabeth Gilberts book Eat Pray Love I wanted to meet with Ketut Liyer the 9th generation Healer and Medicine man she wrote about in the book.I emailed Elizabeth and she gave me some details of how to find him but also asked me to visit Yayasan Bumi Sehat. www.bumisehatbali.org. This is a birthin http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/Ubud/blog-453568.html Monty is about to trade me in if I donrsquot stop snapping photos but this first part of Bali has been so breathtaking my eye might as well be superglued to my camera for convenience. And Irsquom a Smith.. Irsquom pretty sure itrsquos in my genetic makeup right familyWe arrived in Bali on November 7th completely out of fuel. Requiring us at the airport before 4 am in Bangkok aft http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/Ubud/blog-453505.html Hello all sorry it's been ages since my last travel update just one of those stereotypical having too much fun doing a whole lot of nothing excuses. But now upon reflection I there has been much to discuss so let's get to itWhen last we left our crew was spliting up for a bit to have some time to chill apart. When you travel with the same people day after day every minute together you see http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/Kuta/blog-453105.html Sorry about my tardiness again. Time just gets away on you when you are having a blast. I will keep this a short update for numerous reasons. The first being there is lots to catch up on. The second is that I do not feel well.Nov 3rdHung out at the guest house because everyone was super sore from the massive 9 km trek up the mountain. 2 of our group over exerted themselves and were puking much of http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/Kuta/blog-453016.html Bali 6th November 2009Having 'done' Myanmar David decided to look at where AirAsia fly to from Bangkok. Bali came up as ridiculously cheap so we just had to go. Added to which Ann wanted to be somewhere exotic for her 60th so Bali seemed to fit the bill perfectly. Overnighted at the very comfortable if strangely named Great Residency airport hotel at Bangkok we arrived in Bali to yet another h http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/Sanur/blog-453001.html