Dyer

Jay and Alex

Dyer



"There was nowhere to go but everywhere, so just keep on rolling under the stars" - Jack Kerouac, On The Road

We live and work on the beautiful west coast of Vancouver Island, Canada but travel feeds our soul. We can only live in paradise for so long before our desire to explore must be satisfied. Past adventures have seen us tramp around Europe for six months, live/work/travel around the beaches of Australia for another six months, Beijing, Colombia, the madness of India, all throughout Canada/USA closer to home and (comparitively) boring all-inclusive trips to Mexico and Cuba.

The world is a fascinating place and the next trip is always around the corner. We will be travelling for one month in Indonesia in July/August 2014. This will be our first trip into SE Asia and we are looking forward to discovering a whole new part of the world.



Middle East » Israel » Jerusalem District » Jerusalem March 13th 2015

We arrived at our hostel at 6am after a pretty gruelling back to back red eye flights and a 10 hour layover in Amsterdam. We got here just in time for the free breakfast. We filled our bellies and hit the sack for a couple hours. Waking up at noon we took off into the city. This is our first trip into the Middle East which has been a dream of ours for some time so needless to say we're pretty excited about the whole deal. The first stop was lunch at a local cafe. This was to be our first hummus in Israel and it did not disappoint. Pita and hummus is absolutely legendary here. The olives need no introduction. Fuelled up once more we walked down Jaffa Street towards the Old City. Jaffa Street ... read more
Jerusalem
Jerusalem
Jerusalem

Asia » Indonesia » Java » Yogyakarta August 17th 2014

We arrived in Yogyakarta late at night and luckily the van driver knew our hotel so we got dropped off at the right spot. We met a couple Australians on the Bromo tour and we agreed to share a taxi to see the sights the following day so we exchanged details and hunkered down for the night. Jay lounged in the room while I went in search of food. I find it fascinating to walk around a city you don't know late at night in a culture that you don't fully understand. There's something about it that sets your senses on overdrive. I find that while I have a heightened sense of awareness, I also have a heightened sense of bravery when I'm alone. It's hard to describe but it is an enlightening experience nonetheless. At ... read more

Asia » Indonesia » Java » Mount Bromo August 15th 2014

We met the van in the morning and escaped from Kuta on the stupidly slow highway up the coast to Gilimanuk. This is where the ferry leaves from Bali to Banyuwangi on Java. The ferry ride is not much more than a puddle jump. There are a number of companies running back and forth with no obvious schedule or anything. The boats just get out into the harbour and jockey for position looking for an opportunity to get called into the dock. Once we got onto Java, the van rolled onto the city of Probolinggo before veering left into the hills towards the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park. The higher the climb the cooler the climate and the landscape started to change. It was a sharp change as the road was not only rising in elevation ... read more

Asia » Indonesia » Bali » Kuta August 13th 2014

Well here we are in Kuta Bali (not to be confused with Kuta Lombok from earlier in the trip). This place is the exact polar opposite from Ubud. This is a party town that basically seems like Aussie North. Even the touts put on a fake accent to lure you into their store with their phoney "hey mates". Nothing but tourists, bars, clubs and junk souvenir stores. Why did we come here again? The best description we could come up with was a mix between Las Vegas and Surfers Paradise, Aus. We knew right away it would be a battle to enjoy our stay here so we dove in right away. I decided I wanted to buy an AFL (Aussie rules football) jersey because they were super cheap. I did some online research before going in ... read more
Kuta
Kuta
Kuta

Asia » Indonesia » Bali » Ubud August 10th 2014

We finally made it to Bali and we have found a gem of a city! The fast boat from Gili Air worked out great and a minibus was waiting on the other side to take us to Ubud, the cultural centre of Bali. Ubud is inland so no beaches but this is one of the main spots to experience Balinese culture. We pulled into town and found a little homestay to rest our heads. The first thing we noticed in Ubud was the number of expats that live here, there are loads of tourists obviously but there are also tons of foreigners that have set up shop here with restaurants, hotels or are just hanging out here to live a simpler lifestyle. The city is super laid back for an Asian city. We wandered up a ... read more
Ubud
Ubud
Ubud

Asia » Indonesia » Lombok » Gili Air August 9th 2014

Our kind Homestay owner Susi hooked us up with a cheap ride from Kuta Lombok to Gili Air. Gili is the Indonesian word for 'small island'. It really is small on the map so we weren't too stressed about finding a place to stay. Locals were however, consistently warning us that we may not find a place. We landed at the beach beside the dock with about 30 others on a old wooden boat. Surprisingly, it seemed not one company used the government wharf which served the sole purpose of providing locals with a shady place to fish from. We decided to cut straight through the centre of the island and look for a place to stay on the far side of the island. I figured our devilish plan had not been hatched by any other ... read more
Gili Air
Gili Air
Gili Air

Asia » Indonesia » Lombok » Kuta August 3rd 2014

We arrived in Kuta Lombok at about 10am after an early flight from Surabaya. We were happy to arrive early as accommodation has been hard to find during the high season here. We showed up at our preferred homestay and they had one room left available. Our first impression of Kuta Lombok was very positive. This is truly backpacker beach heaven with beach bars, good restaurants and miles of endless white sand. It's touristy here but not as crazy as I imagine the Gilis and Bali will be. It feels like the place has not yet been totally discovered and it is thankfully not covered in big resorts yet although apparently developers are sitting on land here already. Our first day was very unproductive as we spent most of the day alternating between the beach bars ... read more
Kuta Lombok
Kuta Lombok
Kuta Lombok

Asia » Indonesia » Kalimantan » Pangkalan Bun August 1st 2014

We arrived in Pangkalan Bun on an hour and a half flight from Jakarta. Pangkalan Bun is in Kalimantan which is the Indonesian side of the island of Borneo. The main tourist attraction here is the Tanjung Puting National Park. We have arranged for a three day, two night trip up the river into the park on a klotok (houseboat). The owner of the tour company we booked our trip through met us at the airport and drove us into town. He recommended a cheap hotel to spend the night while we await our trip to start early the next day. The place was a bit of a dive but it worked for one night. The next day we were met by our tour guide and we loaded up for the 20 mins drive out to ... read more
Alex & our guide
First encounter
Feigning bravery

Asia » Indonesia » Java » Jakarta July 24th 2014

We finally made it to Jakarta after a long journey. Vancouver-San Francisco-Tokyo-Jakarta. In total it was 20 hours in the air plus layovers which takes a toll on these aging bodies. ANA is pretty good though so it was as comfortable as it could have been. After customs we got out of the airport just after midnight local time. We booked a taxi inside the terminal so we were rushed past the waiting touts to our taxi outside. The trip was great and the city was still pretty busy at 1am. Our hostel in the Cikini area was already sorted out so we got checked in, had a quick shower and passed out petty quick. Our first day started slow as you'd expect. We ate breakfast and lounged around trying to figure out what to do ... read more
Jakarta
Jakarta
Jakarta

South America » Colombia » Cartagena July 23rd 2012

Well we officially found our beach paradise or at least about as close as you can get. We loaded up early in the morning on a small boat (about 30 passengers) in the Cartagena harbour and headed out for Playa Blanca. The ride was pretty interesting. We had a good pace going until the captain suddenly shut the boat down about a half kilometre off the coast and yelled something in Spanish to the guy at the back of the boat. Through a series of hand gestures we realized that the propellor on one of the motors was hooped. We limped along for a bit until a passing boat gave us a new prop. While the guys were working on it the Colombian Coast Guard showed up to see what was going on. Despite all the ... read more
Playa Blanca
Playa Blanca
Playa Blanca




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