We haven’t done a guest post for a while so this will be a special one. We traveled to Manado in North Sulawesi- Indonesia with a couple of friends (Leti & Peter) and their lovely daughter (Sofia). Leti is a great blogger and she wrote a lovely post about our long weekend away. So, here I give you… Leticia Aranda as Una Paraguaya in China.  If you want to see this post in English, please click here to see the automagical Google translation.

Agosto, 2015 – Para mi sorpresa, Peter resultó ser un aficionado del scuba. Era como una pasión latente que brotó y se volvió muy evidente al mudarnos al sudeste asiático. Y así fue que yo también decidí acompañarlo (dentro de mis limites) a todas sus aventuras y “Diving Trips”.

En Redang (Malasia) conocimos a Mariana y Abraham. Ella Brasilera, Él Mexicano. Ambos aventureros y cómplices en todo. Una pareja con mucha química y buenas vibras. Durante un sábado de brunch, trajeron el ipad y nos mostraron cual seria el próximo destino para ir de scuba: Manado, Indonesia.

Catalogado como uno de los sitios mas cotizados para practicar scuba, Manado es un pueblito (islita) en el norte de Sulawesi. Virgen y poco desarrollado, solo para corazones aventureros y fanáticos del scuba.

Yo, hoy en día opte por ser co-piloto, Peter va decidiendo cuál es el próximo destino y yo sin ya hacer mucha investigación previa, me encargo de hacer las valijas, llevar los juguetes de Sofía y partir. Debo decir que si bien algunos de los lugares fueron mas rústicos de lo que cualquier corazón de madre aguantaría, siempre nos fue bien y volvemos con una experiencia surreal. Manado fue igual.

Nos quedamos en un pequeñísimo hotel llamado Janji Laut, con apenas 5 cabañas y capacidad para recibir a no más de 12-15 huéspedes. El restaurant sirve comida casera y especialidades de la casa: Comimos muchísimos mariscos, pescados y frutos de mar. El dueño es francés y le pone bastante empeño en la comida y los detalles.

Sofía y yo pasamos muchísimo tiempo en la piscina para niños y jugando en la arena. Peter, Abraham y Mariana le sacaron el jugo al scuba. El primer día, yo me acople al scuba de la tarde. Fuimos al “House Reef”. Si no hubiese sido por un encuentro cercano con millares de aguas vivas, para mi hubiese sido perfecto. Al bajar, la vida acuática y la claridad del agua hicieron que me olvide de todo el ardor y la incomodidad.

El segundo día, los divers fueron a Bunaken y volvieron extasiados. Peter prácticamente me obligó a ir al día siguiente; y tenia razón. Solo puedo decir que me encantaría tener una memoria de elefante para poder guardar las imágenes y la experiencia de aquel buceo.

Literalmente, una inmensa pared de coral que uno no alcanza ver el fondo. Bajamos 30 metros como si fuese que nada estaba pasando y uno simplemente se deja llevar por la belleza y la magnificencia de la naturaleza. Tortugas marinas reposando en los huecos, peces en todos los colores y formas y mucha, muchísima vida.

Como dice Mariana: “Las fotos no hacen justicia para tanta belleza” pero por lo menos dan para compartirlas y dejar un saborcito de lo maravilloso de este lugar.

Below you can see more photos to complement Leticia’s post!

Our base was mainly Luang Prabang but we also spent a few days in the ‘countryside’ going all the way up to Nong Khiaw. During 9 days we did everything from traditional temples and museums to cycling, kayaking, hiking, riding elephants and even sleeping in a Khmu village. Here I will explain the highlights of our trip.

Luang Prabang

Laos is a very laid back destination with amazingly beautiful landscapes. Luang Prabang receives many tourists from all around the world but yet it is still has a small town kind of feel. It is a lovely town to go around by bike and the perfect place to relax having a coffee watching people pass by. Around the dozens of temples spread around the city are little cafes, bistros, massage places and guests houses that don’t disturb the laid back atmosphere of this lovely town. 

Hmong new year celebration: we were lucky enough to be in town during the Hmong New Year so we had a chance to take a look at the celebration. Different villagers put their village typical attire and get together for a celebration that is centered by the courting ceremony between boys and girls. They toss a little ball from side to side to get to know each other and if they like each other they get married very shortly after – like 3 days after!!!

Alms giving: even though it has become a touristic attraction, there is still something magical about giving food to the monks during dusk. Hundred of monks walk by the streets of Luang Prabang collecting what will make up their full food intake of the day. Tip: there is no need to arrive at 530/600am like the guides recommend. The monks only come past around at 630. In order to get a good you must buy rice from the ladies that are holding seats on the Main Street but I would recommend you to bring fruits with you too because it feels a little weird that all the monks collect ends up being sticky rice and bags of crisps. You can buy them or other items at the market a bit before the ceremony.

Temples: there are so many temples in this very small town (around 34). They are all very nice, but we really enjoyed Wat Xieng Thong, the main temple in town. It is an incredible complex. Wat Mai monastery is also very nice. Haw Pha Bang houses the Prabang Buddha, which is very beautiful. And the views from Mount Phousi, on top of the hill in the middle of town is unbeatable.

Rice farm: At The Living Land Farm we learned the full cycle of rice cultivation and literally got our hands dirty. The thing that makes this experience so nice is the staff/owners. They are a community of local people that work this farm for their own consumption and decided to show tourists how they do it. The money they make goes into giving scholarships to local kids, who then help the farm. Really lovely. 

Restaurants and cafes: 

Tamarind: for sure the best option to get to know Lao food. Their tasting menus are delicious. 

Joma cafe: lovely coffee and cakes.

Rooftop cafe at Indigo House Hotel: super laid back with a great view of the city.

Manda de Laos: this place was recently opened (2015) and is a beautiful hotel and restaurant with very nice food.

Around Luang Prabang

Kayaking down the Nam Khan river: this was a very nice experience to enjoy the views and have a picnic over a banana leaf on the side of the river. 

Sleeping at a Khmu village: this was one of the most awaited moments of the trip. We had extremely high expectations of the interaction with the villagers and a glimpse of their lives. In reality the experience was much more crude than what we expected. The villagers were not much interested in interacting with us and our accommodation was not only basic but it was a little too dirty and run down for our taste. Yet, we had a fun candle lit dinner and an experience to remember. 

Elephant Camp + Tad Sae Waterfalls: elephant experiences always Rock! Riding, bathing and feeding. It was a treat to see little Maxim unexpectedly bathing. The boys even did zip lining at the waterfalls. The waterfalls were quite beautiful for its blue colour and different levels. 

North 

Sunset over the bridge at Nong Khiaw: there isn’t much to do or see up there and it is a little too far from Luang Prabang (4hrs drive). Yet, it enjoys an amazing geographical location that allowed us to see a beautiful sunset by the bridge over the Nam Ou river. 

100 waterfalls: this was a unexpected adventure. I never thought you could hike up a waterfall but apparently you can – with trainers, havaianas or even bare foot. 

Pak Ou caves: it is nice to see all these Buddha statues inside a rock but a little too overrated. 

Logistics tips and comments

Tours: We booked with Tiger trail. They did a good job.

Hotel in Luang Prabang: MyDream resort. It was on the other side of the river and this was actually great. Nearby but mouth more quiet and calm.

Hotel in Nong Khiaw: The Mandala Ou. Incredible views and a beautiful place.

Flights: flew on Lao airlines with a stopover in Ventiane. It was very good with no issues.

The concept: Pangkil is a private island available for private parties. It’s all or nothing. You book the full island with 6 family rooms, one tree house, one pool hut and all services all included – 4 meals a day in different locations of the island, fully stocked bar 24/7, water sports equipment and extremely friendly staff. We were 12 adults and 4 kids but we could have easily fit another 6 people.

The planning: you need to know you want to go to Pangkil quite some time in advance as their calendar is fully booked with months in advance. Lucky for us we had our ‘lovely super planning woman’ Sorcha in control. She did all the booking, arranged the transfer and made sure all the food requirements and fuzziness were met.

The journey: for most people, paradise is this far away land that takes you many hours or days to get to. With that perspective in mind, Pangkhil is only 4 hours away from Singapore. It is off the north part of Bintan – Indonesia. We took an early ferry from Singapore’s Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal to Penang ferry terminal (2hrs). The island staff greeted us at the ferry terminal, did our immigration process and took us by bus the island’s private jetty (45mins). From there, it was a quick 15mins speed boat ride to get to the island and enjoy one of the most amazing weekend we had.

The island: the set up is very rustic with accommodations made of reclaimed wood and bathrooms on open air – there are only 2 big houses with en-suite. There is no air conditioning but it is quite breezy. There is a nice pool and the sea is beautifully clean and blue. You can hear the sound of the sea from every room.

What to do there: many people asked me what we did during the weekend. The answer is: we relaxed. Breakfast is served from 7am until 11am at the main house. Then we had a massage by the sea, laid down under the sun and swam at the sea. Lunch was at 12 o’clock by the pool where we stayed for most of the afternoon until nap time. We had the tree house which was an amazing little hut set on stilts on top of the sand that only fit one double bed. Napping with the sound of sea with a nice breeze was incredible. At 4pm there was afternoon tea and then we played beach volleyball or just relaxed reading a book waiting for dinner. Dinner was at 8pm after which drinks, music, bonfire and fireworks followed. Did we feel bored: not for one minute!

Recommendability: 10
Returnabiliy: 8 – we would definitely go back but it is quite a hefty price

Thimpu – Punakha

From Haa, we took the road straight to Thimpu to be surprised of how big the city was. There are no traffic lights in Bhutan, but Thimpu has one famous crossing with the guard making hand signals – they installed a light years ago, but the people disliked it.

The highlight in Thimpu is really the Tashichhoe Dzong (Fortress) where the King still actually works from and lives. We saw the bringing down of the flag to symbolize the end of the working day and visited the Dzong’s grounds.

We stayed in a standard city hotel (Kang Residence) and went around the town by foot to see the old Post Office and handcraft street market. Other than that we also visited:

• Memorial Stupa: in the middle of the street this temple is where the locals spend hours walking around the main stupa and praying.
• Buddha Point: supposedly the biggest Buddha statue in world. It is being finished but already an impressive sight.
• Traditional Medicine Clinic: we were curious about it and health care is free for everyone including foreigners. We saw a doctor that asked us a few questions and measured our pulse with his fingers to determine our diagnosis. Quite a gift.
• Nunnery: small place with ongoing chanting by the nuns.
• Takin Zoo: this is a small zoo dedicated to the national animal. Quite an weird/interesting animal. The locals say it’s a mix of the head of a moose and the body of a cow.
• National Library: you can see the world’s biggest book in there but that’s all

We finished all the main sight in Thimpu so we had one day left which we used to go see the biggest Dzong in Bhutan – Punaka Dzong. Again, it was a painful car journey with not so safe roads but the prize at the end made it worth it.

Punakha Dzong is indeed massive. This is where the latest royal wedding took place and many other important celebrations like the Punakha Festival. The most impressive part of this Dzong are the courtyards but the temple itself is also impressive being all gold with huge Buddha statue.

On the way, we also stopped by the Fertility temple (Chhimi Lhakhang) where people go to ask for blessing to have babies. The procedure to be ‘granted’ the blessing is quite interesting: you have to hold a giant wooden penis statue, do 3 rounds of the temple with it, receive the blessing from the monk and pick a name for the baby out of a box. We didn’t do because Abraham was afraid of having a first child with a Bhutanese name J

After Punakha, we slept our last night in Thimpu before going to Paro airport. It was certainly a magical experience that we were lucky to share with our family. Bhutan left a nice feeling on our hearts and a hope that openness doesn’t change or destroy this beautiful country and culture. One day we would hope to go back and do more hiking.

That is Mount Everest!

Paro – Chele Le Pass – Haa

After having been greeted at Paro Airport by our tour guide and driver, we started our tour straight away by visiting Paro. First impression: WOW, what a magical place! The grandiosity of the lush green mountains that our plane hovered so closely with beautifully manicured homes & temples sparse by the river in the valley make a breathtaking sight.

The view of Paro Valley from Paro Dzong

Paro is the second biggest city in Bhutan but it follows Thimpu (capital) by a long mile. The town is comprised by a big gorgeous Dzong(fortress) and a main road where all the shops, restaurants and guests houses are. Other than that, little pockets of houses and small hotels disappear through the valley. All the constructions follow the same traditional Bhutanese style making every street an interesting sight. Our hotel- a former royal residence – was slightly higher than the river level so we had a great view of the town and Dzong.

Paro Highlights:

Tiger’s Nest Monastery: by far one of the most amazing sights we’ve ever visited. This temple & monastery is set in the middle of a mountain and to this date still houses tens of monks learning Buddha’s teaching. It is quite a hike up there but it is totally worth it. The guide said that the fittest can go up and down in 3hrs but we took almost 7hrs with a couple of stops for tea & lunch.

Rinpung Dzong (fortress): it was the first Dzong we had seen and for sure it made an impression. The architectural details, courtyards and paintings on the wall were impressive.

The hotel – Gadgety Palace: such a beautiful building with traditional bedrooms and great view. They also have a hot stone bath which was an interesting experience that I shared with my cousins. It is literally a wooden bath that they fill with water and herbs. The heat comes from the stones that are heated on the fire outside and then put into the bath. It was fun!

Other sites we visited in Paro:

• Ta Dzong (Museum): in this small museum you can see the different masks used in the festivals and understand more about the culture, flora and fauna of this spectacular country.
• Kyichu Lhakhang Monastery: one of the oldest monasteries in the country
• Farm house dinner: a slightly weird set up but certainly eye opening – we got to have dinner in someone’s house and eat like locals. We didn’t particularly like the food but it was interesting to see the simple standards that people live in. The particular one we went was also a guest house so watch out if you plan to stay in one of them – you will end up sleeping on a mattress on the floor.

On day 3 of our tour, we departed Paro through The most sinuous road I have ever seen in the direction of Haa Valley. The road took us up a mountain that finished at Chele La Pass and then down the other side to reach Haa. In retrospect, we should probably not have bothered with the painful drive for what we saw on the other side but we made the most of it.

Chele Le Pass is quite a magical spot with white and coloured flags all over the place. These flags are placed by the people as wishing (coloured) or in respect for the dead (white).

Haa Valley Highlights:

Haa Summer Festival: even though it was much smaller than what we expected and it poured rain for a good couple of hours, we really enjoyed been in a less touristic village to see the traditional dance, music and food stalls.

Our Hotel (Soednam Zingkha Guest House) and the valley itself: this was a refurbished traditional Bhutanese home that was set in a beautiful spot at the Haa Valley. The place was very nice and the location was perfect. I wish we had more time to do some hiking around.

Archery Tournament: On the way to Thimpu we managed to stop by a local Archery tournament. They were amazing! The archers were shooting at a target about the size of two pieces of paper from 200 meters away. Every time they hit it they did a nice dance.

Other sites we visited in Haa:

• Haa Dzong: in a slight strange location because it is set right next to the Indian army camp. It is an okay dzong
• Lhakhang Nagpo (black temple): small temple. Not much to see, but we managed to sit for 10-15 minutes hearing beautiful chanting (click below to listen).

Haa Dzong

To read about Thimpu and Punankha (part 3), click here.

Our cultural trip started by the place we stayed in – East Indies. It is an amazingly renovated peranakan house divided into extremely spacious rooms. They made the place to feel as if it was your house with a lovely courtyard for relaxing and a shared kitchen. We rented a 2 bedroom apartment which had a big living room which was very convenient.

Very close to our hotel was the Peranakan House Museum which was very cool to see. They have free guided tours where they explain about the nyonias and babas and other customs. The jewelry, clothes and furniture are amazing to see. Very nice place.

We walked around all over George Town so we saw different temples, little shop house streets and mosques all over the place. The nicest area to find little cafes and restaurants and street art is around Armenian Street where the famous wall paintings are. They are quite nice to see but you need to keep your eyes open to see the more secluded of them.

The most impressive temple of all was Khoo Kongsi because of its size and details. It was very interesting to see the European and Chinese influence merging with Malay culture in the constructions.

Food wise, you can literally find anything you like here. The highlights for us were:

– Kapitan: indian with great tandoori and naans
– Tek Sen: glazed por belly is to die for!

– China House: very nice set up with 3 types of restaurants, boutique and art gallery in a shop house. The desert table is incredible!

In sum, Penang is an easy, full of life, nice place to go for a weekend with friends. Our friends definitely made the different in our weekend

Diving:

The course started in Singapore with study of the theory, theory test and pool session. Sunny Cove was the diving school of choice for us and they were incredibly friendly, efficient and flexible. We took what it is called a Referral course with them so we could go focus on the open water dives in Redang. In Redang we were taught by an experience PADI instructor and a PADI master (one of the only 10 in the country) throughout 4 dives: 2 off-shore dives where we learned most of the necessary skills and 2 boat dives where we reached 18m depth. It was a super cool experience and I am glad we did it but at times some of the things we had to do seem a little silly. The little voice in my head was saying “why would you put yourself through this much risk”- having to remove your mask 15m under water and swim for a few meters was certainly on the top of the list of things I would never do in my life. But hey it was worth it and we were able to really enjoy seeing lots and lots of fish, coral and even a couple of sting rays.

The journey:

Part of the adventure was the journey there. We decided to go by bus because the flights had very inconvenient times. We booked everything through easibook.com but on the way there we travelled with Kosortium and on the way back with Transnational. The total journey is between 9,5hrs and 12hrs as we came to found out on the way back. Kosortium has very nice buses with large comfortable seats so the journey up was totally harmless. We took off from Beach Road and got dropped off directly at Merang Jetty in 9,5hrs. Awesome! At the jetty we hired seats on a speed boat with a company called Nurung which was the only one that had a boat living at that time – it was much cheaper than the boat organized by the hotel and it was totally fine. The boat journey took 35mins to a small pier where we were greeted by the hotel van that takes you on a 5min ride until the resort. 10:30am we were already sitting by the amazing beach!

The return was not as smooth. Transnational bus departs from Kuala Terranganu’s bus terminal so we had to take a taxi from Merang Jetty (45mins), wait for a few hours around the terminal and take the bus at 9pm. The bus was almost full and it was a conventional bus with small seats. The worst part is that this service takes you to Singapore on the local highway and crosses over through Woodlands which added a good 3hrs on to the journey time. Next time we will sacrifice a few hours on the beach to leave early and catch the flight.

The Taaras Resort

The decision was driven by the dive centre but we were not disappointed. Despite the average reviews on TripAdvisor, we thoroughly enjoyed it. The highlight is definitely the beach which is private to the hotel – white sand with blue calm sea. The best so far in SE Asia. We stayed at a Garden Suite – very comfortable, clean, beautiful suite in a bungalow 10m from the sand. The staff was very friendly, breakfast was good and spa was good. What else can you ask for?

Food

We had huge amounts of food at breakfast to survive all the diving effort and late afternoon we tried food at the Bistro and at the Beach Bar. Both were quite ok and prices were standard hotel prices. The last night we decided to venture the outside world and go to Aima Grill Fish literally by the hotel gates. It is a family owned shack that serves fresh fish and a mean calamari portion. Very very nice for people that are not looking for an atmosphere but good food a lower price.

Returnability: I would definitely go back but the distance is something that gets on the way

Recommendability: 10

We started our trip in great style with a couple of days by the beach at the Shangri-la Rasa Ria. The hotel was very nice but we were not completely blown away by the beach. The plus side is that they own a orangutan rescue centre where we were able to see a infant orangutan that was on rehab – really nice to see an organization like that.

Anyway, let’s get into what really matters. The climb is set up to be done in 2 days in one night so and I will describe them to you here.

Day1: we were picked up by Amazing Borneo at 7am and reached the start of the trek at about 9:30am after a quit sinuous journey. Upon arrival our guide/ porter (Indie – inspired by Indiana Jones) was assigned to us. The little guy had huge legs and was able to carry our entire luggage up. We didn’t have much but we made sure to have warm clothes for the next day, lots of water and medicine for anything that could happen. We set off at about 10:30 – me with my newest best friends “walking sticks”. I swear they were the best thing I carried to that trip! I don’t think I would have been able to make those horrible steps up and down without them. Yeah you heard well – steps! Lots of them! Nobody warns you but I will. If you think you are going to experience a long steep path you are wrong. You will be faced with the most amount of steps of your life. Small wooden ones, large clay ones and ridiculously big rocks. The terrain really changes over the climb but one thing you can bet on: there will be steps. Moving on. The first stage is a 6km climb to the accommodation and we did it in 5hours. The accommodation is very simple: no showers, shared rooms, bunk beds, mess hall and only cold water. All of that is (kind of) forgotten given the amazing view. The accommodation is located just above the clouds so the sunset was truly spectacular but we were very lucky with the clear weather. At 6pm we had dinner and by 7.30pm everyone is in bed getting ready for the next day. Ps.: at that point I almost decided not to go the day after – it was cold (yeah, it does get cold even though it is in SE Asia), my body was completely exhausted and I was afraid of the climb in the darkness.

Day2: 1:30am wake up! Everything is pitch black and we set off at 2:15am with the help of our head torches. The climb starts with a lot of small wooden steps but soon we reached the ‘danger zone’ which is a part where you climb holding a rope because there is a massive cliff right next to you. Needless to say that it was the scariest part of all. It is only a 2.8km climb but it took us almost 4hrs to get to the summit. 4 hours of pure fear and exhaustion with no silver lining because you can’t freaking see anything yet. It is was as much of a physical challenge as it was a mental one. I wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t for Abraham encouraging me ALL the way. We finally made it to the summit just before the sun rise. Oh what a view! Unbelievable to think that we got to 4,095m on foot. It was very cold up there so all the clothes that we removed because of the heat of the exercise were totally needed to be able to enjoy the view for a few minutes. That’s because that’s all we had before starting our descend.

At 7:30am we were at the beginning of the small via ferrata. This was an add-on to the adventure (because it wasn’t enough) – it is a steel cable aided rock descend. That was quite fun! We got to cross a cliff stepping on cables only! UHU! If you are in rush to go down then don’t do the via ferrata. It took us 2,5hrs to descend 600m.

After that we got back to the accommodation where we had breakfast and relaxed a little. At 12pm we happily started the 6km descend that we thought it was going to be easy. Hell no! Those steps made the journey down just as slow and tricky as the climb. It was not anymore about the cardio effort but let me just say that the joints were crying! By 6pm we were on the bus that took us back to the hotel.

We stayed in a TH hotel very close to the airport to catch our flight the next morning. The hotel was not nice at all but it had a bed and a shower which is all we needed. Our legs were completed dead but we had a very nice feeling of accomplishment to bring back home.

Now reflecting back we are very pleased to have done it. The feeling of achievement is incredible. At the moment you don’t really have enough time or energy to appreciate it fully but it was amazing!

The first destination was actually Kuala Lumpur which we spent a couple of days at. The main purpose of our visit was to spend the weekend with friends that live there – Mara and Roger (Lud’s parents). It was a great family weekend. We were able to spend a lovely time with them and also discover a little bit of KL. Our first impression is that it is a very green city with a strong cultural background both Chinese and Muslim. This mixture jumps to the eyes in the city centre where the old Muslim market is crammed next to China town. Like a lot of the big cities in Asia, it also has a massive shopping focus and a touch of megalomania that is illustrated by the Petronas towers. If you are passing by on your way to any of the other wonders of Malaysia sure stop over but for us it was more important to see our friends than the city itself.

Now, on to the big one! Mount Kinabalu! This 4,095m mountain is situated in Borneo in East Malaysia which is actually a territory within a mostly Indonesian island south east from Singapore. Borneo is a natural haven with lots of attractions – wild life, diving, trekking and hiking. We went to Kota Kinabalu with one mission only: climb Mount Kinabalu and WE DID IT! It was possibly the most difficult thing I have ever done but it was totally worth it. We also had a chance to visit the orangutang reserve which was actually part of the hotel we were staying at – Shangri-la Rasa Ria. That was also quite nice to see.

Next stop was Pulau Redang. An absolute last minute decision to use our Easter break to do our PADI certification. What a pleasant surprise! We wanted to enjoy the under water wonders of SE Asia so we needed to get certified as open water divers. There are several options of places but Redang seemed to be the one that united diving with a nice holiday. It did indeed. We had an amazing time and it is so far the best beach holiday we had in the region. Totally worth it!

Our most recent destination was Penang. We went to this island looking for local food and culture and that’s what we found. It was by far not the best place we had been in Malaysia but certainly an interesting place to get to know the Peranakan culture a little better.

Certainly this list of destinations in Malaysia will grow. We already have our eyes on Sipadan, Cameron Highlands, Batu Batu and Langkawi. For now, click to read the details of each of the locations.

We stayed at Elephant Lodge Park which is of a zoo/ attraction park 2,5 hrs away from Dempasar airport. The drive up there is totally worth it and staying at the Lodge gives you the opportunity to really experience being with elephants. Everyday we would open the window and see them munching their breakfast, we would then go and wash a few of them and go for a dip in the lake/pool. The elephants are mostly free and can pick you up in your room for a little ride.

The Lodge is 30mins away from Ubud which is a lovely little town with restaurants and bars in the midst of temples. It really doesn't feel very touristic and we ate very well – ribs on the side of the road were the absolute best – do not miss going to Naughty Nuri's! Korin even went for the classic ribs and cosmo! But we were also extremely pleased with Fair Warung Bale which raises fund to treat people in Bali. I think it is a trend that good-hearted swiss guy/ couple would open really nice restaurant in the region for a good cause. The other restaurant we went to was a place called Bridges, a beautiful place above a river with a spectacular view, and the food was pretty good too!

Typically dance performances are not very good but we went to see a fire dance which was extremely different from everything we had seen. A group of 100 men chanting along a little play followed by a man kicking dry coconut shells in flames. Strange but it works

Ubud is also famous for the proximity to the volcano that we went to see followed by a bike ride through the villages and rice fields. It was interesting to see a typical home where 3 generations live together and build a temple in the yard to pray. The best part of the ride was that we were able to see a special celebration that decorated the streets and brought people out. Enchanting!

We had a chance to learn how kopi luwak is made and try it. Interesting a little different from normal coffee but there is something about grains out of animal poo that doesn't sit very well with me

At the end of the trip we did a pit stop at a beach close to the airport but I wish we had gone to Nusa Dua or somewhere else in the south. I guess we will be going to Bali again! Want to join us?