Ubud, Mt. Batur, and Semyniak

Hey y’all! :)

A lot has happened in the last week, so let me tell you about it.

After our stop in Canggu, we went to Ubud. Ubud is known as the yoga centre of Bali, literally everywhere in its busy little streets, you can find offers for yoga classes or Balinese massages. The town also has many different temples. Some of them lay in the so called “Monkey Forest” which we visited on our first day. It is simply gorgeous there!! The rainforest with its huge trees, little creeks, and various ancient-looking bridges is home to a couple hundred monkeys. They sit on the trees and temples and like to be fed by the tourists. But you have to be careful! The monkeys are known to be very sneaky and like to grab loose items. We have heard stories about them stealing phones, sunglasses, etc. One time we sat down to relax  little and a monkey jumped on my head! Luckily he just pulled at my hair and the jumped down again. 

On the next day, we decided to rent a scooter and go to the Campuhan Ridge Walk and the Tegalalang rice terraces. I have never driven a scooter before, so I sat on the back of Sofie’s and directed where we had to go. First, we went to the Campuhan Ridge Walk. That is a little track from which you have a nice view of the surrounding rainforest and villas. It was beautiful!  From there we drove to the Tegalalang rice terraces. They were exactly how I had pictured them in my mind, green terraces on both sides of a small valley. We could even see some workers with the traditional hats and gear.

The next stop on our tour through Bali was Mt. Batur. Mt. Batur is Bali’s tallest volcano. It lies in the north of the island in a round valley with a big lake on one side. We stayed in a hostel called “Black Lava Hostel”. We had our own bungalow and could oversee the lake, very cool! The hostel offers private guided tours to the top of the volcano. We decided to do a tour, so on the next day, we got up at 3:30am to start our hike. We started so early because we wanted to see the sunrise from the top of the mountain. Equipped with walking sticks and headlamps, we walked through the jungle. It was pitch dark and hard to breath because of the humidity, really exhausting. After we left the jungle behind us, the path became narrower and steeper, even more exhausting! After about 2 hours we reached the top just in time for sunrise. It was absolutely worth it! You could overlook the whole valley and even the mountains of Lombok island. Our guide served us breakfast (coffee, tea, hard boiled eggs, and banana sandwiches) while we sat on a bench and enjoyed the view. We walked around the crater and visited a cave inside of it. Our guide explained that the indigenous people sometimes hold religious ceremonies there, super interesting! We walked back to our hostel and appreciated the cold showers and food after this really awesome but exhausting hike. It was so worth it!! 

On the same day we drove back to the south of Bali, to Seminyak. The beach there was amazing, so we just relaxed. On our second day there, we went to a restaurant called ”Ku De Ta” It was right by the ocean and had an infinity pool which we could use for free, if we ordered a drink. We spend most of the day there. In the afternoon, Sofie went to the airport to pick up her boyfriend who came to visit and travel with us for a week. Meanwhile, Taddi and I went to a really cute little restaurant in a quite courtyard called “tasty vegan”. The food was delicious! In the evening we walked to the beach to watch the sunset. 

Right now, we are on the Gili islands, but I will write about that in my next entry. 

Love,

Anne :)

Bali

Hey everyone! :)

We landed safely in Denpasar on Bali, Indonesia on Friday evening. We arrived at 10pm and were already kind of tired. Then we had to wait like 45mins to get our luggage and after that we went outside to get a taxi to our hotel. As soon as we stepped out of the airport, we found ourselves surrounded by taxi drivers who tried to get us to drive with them. After like 15mins we were so annoyed that we walked back into the airport. We decided that it would be best to  order an Uber and so we did. Only thing is that the Uber never showed up... We were so incrediblly tired and exhausted by then so we just went along and took one of the taxis. (Later we found out that we had paid way too much for it -.-) The hotel we stayed in for our first night, was not that good because we had to share a double bed and the bathroom was in a kind of capsula in the  midde of the room, really weird.
In the morning, we ate breakfast in the hotel and tried to plan our further steps. Our first impression of Bali was not really good due to the annoying taxi drivers and the hotel, so we were not in a good mood... But then we found a nice-looking hostel in Canggu online and ordered a Bluebird-Taxi (this company is supposed to be trustworthy) to get there. After we arrived at the Hideout Hostel in Canggu, we were so relieved! The hostel was super nice! It had a big garden and was really quite, not like in Denpasar. The dorms were clean, and each one had a seperate shower and toilet outside.
After unpacking and relaxing a little on the couches where we met some other very friendly travellers, we walked to the beach. Unfortunately, it had just rained a bit, so the sky was pretty cloudy. The beach. however, was awesome! Black sand, high waves with lots of surfers, and bars right next to it. We walked along the beach and decided to eat something in a bar where we could watch the surfers. After that, we went to a rooftop infinity pool that our hostel host had recommended. You only had to order a drink and then you could use the pool. It was amazing because we could overlook the whole beach while enjoying the cool water. We went to our hostel afterwards and relaxed. In the evening, we went to the same restaurant with the pool. A really nice girl from Switzerland accompanied us and we had a nice dinner while watching the waves. At some point, a man started playing an instrument in a tent on one side of the restaurant. We didn't know what kind of instrument it was, and I turned around to watch him. All the sudden he waved and suggested that I should come over to him. He presented himself as Yoman and the instrument as a Rindit. He had a second one and taught me how to play it. It was just a simple melody, but it was a lot of fun!! :)

On our second day here, we went to a place called "nalu bowls" to have breakfast. They had bowls with all different kinds of fruit and granola. I had one with mango, papaya, banana, pineapple, homemade granola,  and apple juice. It was absolutely delicious!!
After that we went to get a Balinese full body massage at a spa nearby. The massage was great and cost only about 5 Euros!! Super relaxed we went back to our hostel and ordered a taxi to Tanah Lot, a temple about 20 mins from Canggu. The temple is located on top of a rock in the ocean and has some other buildings on the cliffs around. When we entered the temple, we first had to walk through a market with lots of clothes, souvenirs,etc. We saw some cool stuff and decided to return later. We couldn't enter the temple, so we only took pictures from outside. It was not very big and not as impressive as we had expected, but still beautiful. There were a lot of tourists and it was super hot, so we decided to sit down. Sofie and I were sitting on a rock and suddenly a (maybe indian?) woman came up to us and asked if she could take a picture with us. We agreed and all the sudden more and more people came to us and asked for pictures,even entire groups of people! As if we were the attraction and not the temple! It was quite funny :). After walking around the buildings for some time, we went to the market where I bought some shorts after sucessufully bargaining down the price to 2,10 Euros! :D Then we had dinner in a restaurant on top of the cliffs from which we had a great view of the temple. Awesome day!!!! :)

Tomorrow, we will continue our journey in Ubud, the yoga centre of Bali.

Hope y'all are doing well!
Annette :)

First stop: Dubai

Hey guys! :)

our journey has fianlly begun!!
On sunday, we  traveled by train to Frankfurt  International Airport. After successfully finding the right check-in gate, we were relieved that we could drop off our heavy backpacks. (Mine only weighed a little more than 10kg, it doesn't seem much, but after walking around some time and especially after making the mistake to take the stairs instead of the escalator... I was super glad to finally take it down :D) Our flight was scheduled at 10:20pm. We flew with Emirates, an airline that I can now only recommend to everyoe!! We had a lot of space (I actually had enough room for my legs and even space to really move them, yayy!) and the entertainment on board was absolutely amazing! So  many movies, TV-shows, differnet playlists, and even some games to play with other passengers. I was so excited about all, that I wasted a good 60 minutes going through everything and saying "Oh my god, i can't believe this" XD. The flight was about 6,5 hours long , but unfortunately, I wasn't really able to sleep -.-. We arrived around 6:30am in Dubai. After collecting our luggage, we drove with the metro to our hotel. During the 50min-drive, we saw a lot of very tall and modern buildings, super impressive! We finally found our hotel, the Jannah Marina Bay Suites, after a 15min-walk between high buildings and along a long, very nice boardwalk. Luckily, we could check in right away. Our room here was totally awesome! It was very big and even had a kitchen!
 The first thing we did, was taking a power-nap and after that, we went to the supermarket across the street to get some groceries. The supermarket literally had everything, even some German cake! After the short shopping trip, we took the metro to Dubai Mall and Burj Khalifa.The mall is the largest mall in the world and features a gigantic aquarium, a waterfall and an ice rink. You can find over 1200 different stores in there, it is HUGE!! After walking around for some time, we got some food (the food court is also gigantic and has all different kinds of food from all over the world.) At 4:30pm, we booked a tour to the top of Burj Khalifa. The elevator took us with amazing speed to the 124th floor of the tallest building of the world. We stepped out on the terrace and had an incredible view over the whole city. It was breathtaking! We could see all the other amazing buildings, the huge streets, and the beach. We waited until the sun set and all the lights turned on. By night, Dubai is even more fascinating. We spent some more time up there and then went down to go watch the famous lightshow of the Burj Khalifa fountain. It exceeded all of our expectations. the fontains were so pretty and with all the lights and the music, it was just amazing!!! If you ever find yourself in Dubai, go to the fountain, it is absolutely worth it! After that, we went back to our hotel and fell right asleep. The first day of our world trip was super amazing, but also very exhausting. :)

On the next morning (after sleeping in and catching up on our needed sleep), we decided to check out the rooftop pool of our hotel. It was so cool because you could see all of the huge skyscrrapers around and the Marina boardwalk which is really pretty. After cooling off in the pool (it is HOT here!!!), we walked to the Jumeirah Beach. The beach was amazing! The sand was super soft, the water was warm, and the view was incredible. Unfortunately, we didn't have much time to spend there because we had previously booked a tour  to the desert and the driver was supposed to pick us up between 3:15 and 3:45 at our hotel. We decided to take another way back and got a little lost, so we had like 10min to shower and get ready for the trip. Of course our driver was a little late, so we had to wait in the lobby. He picked us up with a big SUV, a British family was already inside the car. Together we drove about an hour long out of Dubai into the desert. After making a short stop during which our driver let some air out of the tires (to get a better grip on the sand I guess), we left the street and drove onto the sand. And then the fun started: we drove up and down the dunes, it was like a rollercoaster! Sometimes I was a little afraid that our car might roll upside down, but our driver was super relaxed. He drove one-handed the whole time!! :) We made a quick stop on one of the dunes to wath the sunset and take some pictures. After that, we continued to drive on the street to a "traditional beduine camp". The camp was not very traditional,a lot of tourists, souvenir shops, etc.(but that was pretty expectable). We sat down at a table (you sat on pillows, the tables were placed around a small stage in the middle of the camp) and got something to drink. I got a Henna tattoo and we watched a belly-dancer and a man who did a fire show. It was cool, but the music was so loud that I couldn't really enjoy it... After the show was over, the buffet opened, and we ate some "traditional Arabic food". At 8:30pm our driver came to pick us up, and we drove back to Dubai. Even though the whole tour was pretty touristy, it was definitely worth it!

On our third day here in Dubai, we went to the famous Atlantis Waterpark. It is located on the man-made Jumeirah Palm island, pretty cool!! After smuggling our food and drinks through the security (we hid them in our backpacks underneath our towels and put our bras on top. After the security men saw those, they let us pass very quickly, backpacking skills!!XD), we entered the park. It is very big and really nice! We found some chairs right next to the beach. From there we could overlook the skyline of Dubai and had a perfect view of Burj Al Arab, Dubai's most famous hotel. During the day we tried many different water slides and relaxed on the beach. The park has a big pool for tubing that basically goes through the whole park, so you can just grab a tube and float around for however long you want, that was awesome! :) We went back to our hotel after the park closed (and after waiting 45min for a taxi...).

On the last day in Dubai, we got up and decided to spent some more time at the roofop-pool of our hotel. After that, we took the metro to get to the Mall of the Emirates. It was not quite as big as te Dubai Mall, but still huge. And the special thing abu it: it has a ski lift inside! I had heard of that before, but actuallyseeing the ski slope was even more impressive and ridiculous. I mean, a ski lift in the desert?! That is such a waste of energy >:(.
After walking through the mall, we went back to the metro station and drove to  the souks of Dubai. First, we got a little lost on the way to the Gold souk (in a kind of shady neighborhood...), but luckily we found it pretty quickly. I was very disappointed... I expected a souk like in Marrakech or Istanbul but this souk was only a few small streets under a roof, and we couldn't  walk through it without being bothered by men who tried to sell us "really nice hand bags! Chanel, Gucci, Prada,..." After being glad to have left the Gold souk, we went on to the Souk of Spices. That one was a little better and more like an actual souk, but still not what I had expected...
Then, we wanted to visit the Old Dubai Heritage Center. We had to cross a river, so we took a small, old, wodden boot to get us to the other side. During the short ride, we had a fantastic view on some of the skyscrapers. On the other side of the river, we walked along some traditional old houses to the entrance of the Heritge Center, only to find out it wass closed due to construction... We were really disappointed because we had been looking forward to seeing some of Dubai's history. We decided to visit Dubai Mall again instead. There, we ate something and walked through the seemingly endless floors of shops. At the end of the day, we wentt to Burj Khalifa fountain one more time to see the beautiful lightshow.

Tomorrow morning, we will continue our journey and fly to Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia. After having spent 4 awesome days in Dubai, I have to say that it is a really fascinating city full of architectural highlights, modernity, and very nice people! However, the waste of energy (ski lift, air conditioning everwhere, watering the grass (it is a desert!!),etc) kind of bothered me... But other than that, we had an amazing time at out first destination!! ;)

Next, I will write from Bali =D

Love,
Annette :)

The route

Hey y'all!

welcome to my first entry on this blog. First of all, I'd like to tell you a little bit about who I am and what I'm about to do.

So my name is Annette, I'm 18 years old and I live in Germany. Since I was little, I've always dreamed about traveling through the world and seeing as much as possible of it. When I was 14, I decided to spend one year at an American Highschool as an exchange student. My year in Florida has taught me a lot about myself and let my desire to see and experience more of the world grow even bigger. Now the time has come and I will finally be able to make my dream come true. I have decided to take a year off after finising Highschool here in Germany, and will travel through Asia and New Zealand during the next 6 months.
So let me tell you more about my trip. I will travel with two friends, Tatjana and Sofie, who I know since 5th grade. We will start our journey on October 16th. The first stop will be Dubai where we will spend 4 days. We've already planned a few things including a trip to the desert, a visit on the highest building of the world, and a day in the famous water park. The thing I'm most excited about though, is the fact that I will be able to see one of my best friends. I met her during my stay in Florida. She is from Saudi Arabia and lived in the States for a couple of years, but now she returned to Riad with her family. Unfortunately, we will only be able to spend one day with her, but I'm beyond excited to finally see her again. <3
After our short stop in Dubai, we will fly to Denpasar in Bali. There we will spend about 3,5 weeks before we go on to Malaysia. We have a week to discover Singapore and Kuala Lumpur and will then fly over Bangkok to Hanoi. From there we will travel through Vietnam for two weeks (we can only spend two weeks there because of very strict visa policies :/ ). After that, we're going to discover Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand. In total, we have about 2 months for that.
Sofie will fly home after the trip through Asia, and Tatjana and I will go on to New Zealand where we will meet another friend from Germany, Anja. First, we will spend a few days in Auckland and visit a friend who will be there as an Au Pair for half a year. For the rest of our time in New Zealand (about 7 weeks), we have already rented a campervan. That allows us to travel to places which are not accessible by public transportation and also to camp almost everywhere. I literally can't wait for this little road trip through New Zealand's stunning landscape!! :)
After that, Tatjana and Anja will stay in the area and discover some islands around New Zealand whereas I will fly home to Germany. That will be around the end of March/beginning of April. I wish I could have stayed and travelled with them to even more unknown places, however I will fly to Florida at the end of April with my family, so I just don't have the time to do that. But I'm actually even more excited to return to my second home and see all of my friends and family there! <3
If you're wondering how I can afford all of this, I have been working for the post for the last three months and have saved some money over the last few years.

I can't wait to start on this incredible adventure in two weeks!! So if you're interested in following me on my journey and want to know where I go and what I'm up to, read this blog ;D.

Stay tuned,
Anne :)