nomad4ever

What the best mode of transportation, if you stay more than a few months in one location? Flying? The Train? By Ship? Take the bus? Taxi? Walk? Yeah right!

What then?

The best modes of transportation are still the ones you can handle yourself and use as you like and whenever you want.

That leaves basically only a car, a motor-bike, a bicycle or your feet. As long you are a marathon man or sporty decathlete there is nothing to argue about a bicycle or walking or running. If you aren’t – or just plain lazy like me, that would lead to a lot of arguing with yourself.

written by Chris

That is what true freedom really means for me. Freedom of time, mind, action, day in and day out. Freedom to do, what you want to do – when you want to do it. May it be a jog at sunrise, staying in bed all day, swimming at dawn or horseback riding at sunset.

Thankfully you can fulfil a lot of those freedom dreams in Asia.

written by Chris

Having a few days at hand and nothing better to do, we decided to explore Bali’s East Coast a bit and go for a 2-day ride.

How to get there?

Nothing easier then that: hop on your bike or rent a car and off you go. As we were 2 couples and in the mood for chatting all-way-long, we went for the latter option.

Our car was a Diahatsu Feroza, a slightly bigger kind of “Jeep” then a Suzuki Jimney. It offers enough space for 4 people and some luggage and with a price tag of Rp 100.000/day – a quite affordable one as well.

written by Chris

Do you use your mobile phone when traveling in foreign countries? Yes? No? Apart from the comfort of not having to change your SIM card and just calling and getting called like you’d do everyday; the usually outrageous roaming charges will surely knock you out of your travel budget soon.

But – it doesn’t have to be that way. Just get a local SIM card!

Is it really that easy? Yes and No.

written by Chris

Last night we joined our friends Nurul and Esti for a real highlight in Legian in Bali. It happens every sunday and is some kind of many Magic Moments at once – not to be missed!

The place to be is in front of Zanzibar and Blue Ocean Restaurant at Jalan DoubleSix Beach, right infront of the ocean waves. Sundays around 5.30pm it slowly starts to happen:

Locals and Expats alike bring their drums along and position themselves in a half circle, facing the glowing ball of the setting sun. Then one of them starts, drumming ahead while others fall-in to follow. Soon after everything is a crazy, amazing, multi-drumming, dancing, chanting, bombastic sound scene. :-)

written by Chris

In Bali, as in most parts of Indonesia and other asian countries as well, you have people who earn their living by selling food.

They push a small cart up and down the streets, selling everything from Nasi Goreng (Fried Rice), Bubur Ayam (Rice Porridge with Chicken), Bakso (Beef Ball Soup), Cendol (sweet jelly dessert on crushed ice), coconut drinks, jamuh (medicine drinks), cake, donuts, ice-cream and other delicate specialties.

They can cook or cool their dishes in these carts, and of course it pays to check the over-all-hygiene of those carts beforehand. :-)

written by Chris

When you stay a bit longer in one place – basically when you are a traveler, not tourist – internet cafe’s tend to lose their appeal to surf the internet. The disadvantages are many

• you have basically shared bandwidth, therefore slower connection
• they tend to be more expensive than own dedicated access (of course; they have a whole infrastructure and staff to pay for)
• it can be noisy, if many people are around or some kids play shooter games
• it’s not very private, if you want to “Skype” someone, on top of that you disturb the people around you

written by Chris

…because it is run by a bunch of fraudsters and violent criminals!

Why, you might ask? Here is the whole story:

My fiancee and me had a ball of a time partying the night away with friends on New Year’s Eve in Jalan Dhyana Pura, Bali. After midnight, around 3-4am of the first day of the New Year 2007, we thought it might be a good idea to sway in some chill-out rhythms to one of Kuta’s famous in-places – the music club “MBarGo” in Jalan Legian, Kuta. We’d been there before and usually they play a nice mix of music on 2 floors.

written by Chris