And it goes a little something like this…

Monday 31 August

Left Senggigi and arrived in Gili Air yesterday. Got a proper hotel room(bungalow) for 150,000!!! I’m in paradise, again ;) . The island is beautiful, the hotel is beautiful (pool, proper room, bathroom, towels, tv(!), proper breakfast included!!). From the day bed on my verandah I can see the pool, the beach and [...]

I’m now skipping Java *and* Sumatra, but at least I can say I’ve seen Lombok (and Komodo Dragons! see post way down there). I want to climb Mount Rinjani, which is the second highest mountain in Indonesia. I’ll climb to the crater rim, as it erupted in May and there’s still some lava flowing, omg!! [...]

Most conversations with Indonesians are along the side of the road, and they’re all men. It’s ‘Transport, taxi?’  To which I answer Tidak! (no). Or it’s ‘Hello, how are you, where are you going, where are you from, where are you staying’ (one or any combination of them). They’re usually trying to get me into [...]

Geez, can’t believe I’ve written a whole post about common ‘traveller’s diarrhea’, but I’ve just never been so sick and feel the need to record it :P
Ok, read it again and really only my mother and grandmother should be reading this!

Monday it started with a headache all day, and despite three paracetamols (a lot for [...]

This was the name of the Perama tour I went on for 5 days (tour 1 is 3 days west to east and 2 is 2 days east to west). So the main purpose of the trip was to take photos of Komodo Dragons, but it was so much more than that. Highly recommended, despite [...]

No time for details, but boattrip is awesome, and saw 6 dragons today!!
Photos here of course: http://www.flickr.com/photos/simonevh/
And I’ve made a map of where I’ve been:
View southeast asia 2009 in a larger map

Wednesday 19 August – Sanur/Seeds of Hope
The other day my mission was to get to the Seeds of Hope Children’s Home where my friend Amy from Perth worked for 3 months recently.
I walked to where the bemos were, but there wasn’t a bemo(public minivan) going to the busstation I wanted, so I guess I ended [...]

Monday 17 August – Ubud

Had a good nights sleep, despite hearing strange noises while going to bed(rats or large geckos in the roof I think), and then someone very, very angry shouting in Indonesian and banging stuff close to my room at 5am! It scared me a bit, as generally the Indonesian people aren’t aggressive, [...]

Sunday 16 August 2009
Ok, nevermind that ‘easing into it’ business. I booked a bus for Ubud at 16.30, got here at around 17.45. Found a room by 18.30 and lots of walking.

I have no flushing toilet (though it looks like a western one), no toilet paper, a bucket to flush the toilet with, not hot [...]

So I’ll be backpacking around southeast asia for six months, staying in guesthouses and traveling by myself most of the time.
But for the first 2 nights I’m with friends(JJ, Grum, Courtney and Tim) in a hotel in Kuta, Bali. Feels like I’m cheating! Or shall we just say, easing into it… Gradually I’ll go to [...]