HAPPY NEW YEAR 2017!!! 🙂

We arrived Bali in Indonesia some days before New Year’s Eve and had planned to meet some friends and family from Norway. Together with Bertha, Lina and Maryann we explored Sanur town, restaurants and beaches. A biiiig thank you to Maryann who showed us how to get around in Sanur. 🙂 On New Year’s Eve we went out to eat and dance at the local bar “Casablanca”, We all had a great time listening and dancing to some nice reggae music all night. Our time in Sanur can be summed up like this – Morning walks with Maryann, breakfast by the pool, swimming, reading books, experiencing heavy rainfalls, getting leg-massage, doing schoolwork with Luna Noor, walking by the sea, talking to friendly Indonesians, taking pictures of the nature and flowers, playing cards, shopping souvenirs and eating late dinners. We even experienced our very first earthquake one morning in bed. That was a bit scary… However it was not too big so we only noticed the beds were shaking a bit. Lucky us!

Emeric Philip took his first surfing course ever and became an eager surfer after this. Great! To us Sanur in Bali was a beautiful place with lush nature, colorful flowers and incredibly beautiful doors. By the way – “Terima kasih” means “thank you” in Indonesian language.

After 3 weeks of relaxing in Sanur we thought it was time to go for a new adventure exploring different parts of Bali and Java. We first drove to Ubud to look at some rice-terraces, then to a national park up in the hills of a volcano, before ending up rafting in a river in the countryside in Bali. All of this was just wonderful! I never thought we would do half of the things we did…

The next day we went snorkelling at the northeast coast of Bali – another amazing experience with colored corals and fish we’ve never seen before… The pictures and videos tell it all! 🙂

We then headed towards Lowina beach to go dolphin-watching. Early in the morning we set off to try and get a glimpse of these beautiful animals and luckily we got to see some after one and a half hours. :-)

From there we started driving towards Java. We had some serious kilometers in front of us. First taking the ferry from Bali to Java, then driving many hours each day to see the two famous temples “Borobudur” and “Prambanan” – one Buddhist and one Hindu temple. What stunningly gorgeous masterpieces built thousands of years ago!!! Driving in Java was a very special experience. The roads were narrow and bumpy – still the Javanese people drove very fast. There were lots of motorbikes everywhere – in front of us, on the sides (!), behind… and sometimes on the roadside – after an accident… We saw two accidents on our way back to Bali. Another interesting thing we saw was the many different and colorful mosques. We got some nice photos of them!

On our way back to Bali our last visit was to go to the very well-known, active volcano Bromo in Java. We had a most unbelievable and extraordinary experience on that trip. The guides took us down the hills of the crater of the volcano, then each of us got a horse to ride up to nearby the very center of the volcano. The last 50 meters we climbed the stairs on the outside of the active volcano to look down into the smoke of Bromo. A chilling and unreal experience… We spent some time there – trying to digest what we were experiencing – standing on the edge of the crater. What a day!

Finally we drove back to Bali to reach our next flight to Australia! But before that – more pictures and videos follows… 🙂

Friends and family on New Year’s Eve… and other days and nights

Colorful Bali doors, nature and flowers

     

      

       

       

       

       

      

 

   

   

    

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

Surfing…

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

     

     

Heavy rainfalls in Sanur and while driving…

Swimming time

Rafting in the rainforest… super! 

       

      

     

     

     

 

 

 

 

   

   

        

Boat trip and snorkelling

  

Lovina Beach and Dolphin watching

     

      

    

    

         

         

Borobudur and Prambanan temples

      

   

      

     

     

     

          

       

       

   
            
Visit to the active volcano Bromo in Java

     

     

  

  

  

  

  

  

Colorful Javanese mosques