Indonesia - Bali - Gili Trawangan - Lombok

A trip to Indonesia, Bali – Gili - Lombok

So here I am, first time in Indonesia. It is actually so close to Bangkok or Manila and I still haven’t made it to Bali till now.

First thing u encounter is the usual rip of prices the airport taxis want to charge u to get into town. Normal price to midtown Kuta would be 30’000RP but the usual taxi starts wt a price of 150’000RP. Welcome to Bali…

I made my way down to Kuta beach and was a bit shocked… I thought I was in Phuket or Koh Samui, the beach was very crowded and especially full of drinking Ozzys at 11AM. It took me no more than a couple of minutes to understand the bombings in 2002, specially when I discovered Legian street where the memorial is located. All along this street is one bar and club after each other busting the music as loud as possible.

So all I did in Kuta, was waiting for my chanchita Caro and then move somewhere else. If ur looking for Bali u want find it in Kuta or Legian, but if u wanna party, that’s the place to go.

The next day we decided to get some tickets to Gili Trawangan to find a more peaceful island wt nice beaches and as I found out, there were some Swiss friends on the way to that island too, Andreas and Fabienne.

A very early wake up, a bus transfer to the harbor and a bumpy 2h boat ride later we found ourselves on Gili Trawangan, a scenic little island north west of Lombok. I f u rent a bike u can ride around the island in about 1hour. There are 3 islands here side by side and the best thing about all of them, there is no traffic, 0 motorized vehicles. The only way to get from from ur hotel to the beach or a restaurant is by foot, bicycle or horse carriage.

Plenty of dive schools offer courses and fun dives, the good thing is u don’t have to worry about prices, they are all the same in all schools. So u can actually choose ur school by the people and the service and not by cheapest price. My fun dive was good, I’ve seen some ginormous turtles, the tiniest little shrimp a whole lot of very colorful fishes.. too many to know or list their names here.  

We climbed the highest mountain on the island to enjoy the sunset… must have been at least 100m high ;-) The sun was shining when we walked up but never showed up for sunset…. But hey we had a good workout.

The restaurants on the island are pretty good but a bit more expensive then most other places. We spent dinner mostly together wt my Swiss friends and some good chats and laughs about our travels and journeys.

After a couple of days of laziness we decided to move on to Kuta Lombok, which is a famous surf destination. When we arrived in Kuta we figured out that there is actually no real good spot right here, the next best one is in Gerupuk, about 10minutes motorbike drive away. We headed straight there and found a nice little homestay for 10$/night. This was our base now for some days of surfing and exploring.

The first day of surfing was not so successful… haven’t been on one of those boards for a long time… more used to my small kiteboards. The second time I took a longer board and caught much more waves and had more fun after all. The wave (Don don) we surfed was just a 5minute boat ride outside of our homestay and it could have been named the Swiss wave… at least 80% of all people on this wave were Swiss… and I think the rest was French.

We made a country side trip wt our motor bikes, it’s amazing how many waves u can find in the area, every 15minutes u find a new beach and the further u go the more remote the spots. Time has gone fast and it was already time to say goodbye to Carolina, we had a good time and lots of fun in the sun. For me it was just two more days over here and some good waves later I took a plane back to Kuta. This is much faster and cheaper than taking a bus, boat, bus version.

Cheap flights

I headed straight for Sanur beach this time. I found a cheap place to stay right next to the local market... which I would visit various times for dinner within the next days. The food here is great, local and very cheap. I explored the beaches around here for a few days and tried to get some kiteboarding in… but the wind was not really wt me, as I don’t really like to kite wt a 14 or 16m kite. I would say it’s a very good spot for race boards.

I took my motorbike for a longer ride up to Ubud, which is in the middle of the island. Most of the local craftsmen live and work up in this area, on the way up there u can see countless shops for furniture, wood frames, sarongs, masks…

I took a  two hour walk along the rice paddies and small canals. It’s a very relaxed atmosphere up here, perfect to enjoy nature for a while. I made up plans to return the very next day as there was a big cremation ceremony goin on.

The ceremony was amazing, no sign of sadness and grieve. It is a happy, crazy ceremony where the body got transported through the streets inside a big black cow. The body and soul gets into a better life reunited wt the 5 elements water, wind, earth, fire and universe. It takes hundreds of helpers to carry the up to 15tonnes structures along the road. If u have the chance to see any of these ceremonies, it’s a must do.

From here on I went down to Uluwatu, which is one of the most famous surf spots in Bali. Thx to my friend and surfer Samia I found a very good stay. 20$/night. There is a big Brasilian community over her, and especially in my hotel. They all come over to surf for a couple of month usually. The swell was not very big, so perfect for me to rent a board and have some more fun out there. I surfed Padang-Padang for a day and went to check out the other spots as well, but due to the full moon the tide was only high enough in the morning... if u don’t like to get washed over the reef.

So this was pretty much it… a very nice trip wt loads of good people, a lot of fun and stunning nature and amazing beaches all around.

Back to Bangkok now and off to Japan before I will head back to Switzerland for a couple of weeks.

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Roadtrip along the west coast of Turkey

A shortcut through one week of road trip around Turkeys best kite spots.

Driving along endless Eucalyptus tree alleys, olive trees all over the mountains, adventures roads, fresh figs from the garden, endless empty beaches, windy spots, flat water, kicker waves, cozy hotels and enjoying and experiencing the Turkish cuisine...

KTA Turkey
First of all i wanna start with a special thx to all the organizers and helpers of the KTA Turkey tourstop, u guys did a great job. I think I speak out of most people's mind if i say we had a blast. We had some great onshore winds the first days and some hardcore offshore to finish off the comp. At the end we got it all done with a full double elimination and 8 races, not bad for the first stop of the 2010/11 season.

read the full report here on our new website: www.kiteboardtour.asia







So after the competition we pampered ourselves for two more days in the 7800Cesme Hotel before i moved up to Izmir together with Rebecka and the whole KTA crew. Most of em went straight for the airport to disappear to different parts of the world, while Rebecka and myself stayed two more nights in Izmir with Basak at her parents place. We got spoilt again with a great hospitality and more Turkish food experiences... donno if there is an end of it, but u definitely need a lot of workout if u stay here for long time.
Rebecka got her eye surgery done over here in the Izmir Eye Hospital, called "Kaskaloglo Göz hastanesi" no more contacts needed.
Here like to thank Basak and her parents again for the great hospitality.

So after our time in Izmir it was time to split up again, Rebecka went back home to Oslo and i started my way down to Gökova. Gotta say, the busses here are very comfy, looks like 5star airline, screens in every seat.. playing only Turkish movies (-;

My trip went from Izmir - Gökova - Bodrum - Didim - Bodrum - Didim - Bodrum - Istanbul

ok, we spent a few too many hours in the car, but hey, that's what happens if ur chasing new spots and the wind.
We had wind at nearly every spot we went to, i kited every day.
Gökova, is a wide Beach in a Nature reserve area in between mountains, where the wind funnels through. The water is flat to choppy and knee deep for the first 100meters. Little school and Bistro is setup on the beach. The wind is mostly onshore.

Bodrum, is not really a special spot, but still a nice change for a visit, the beach is a bit narrow and water is mostly choppy, a kiteschool is just around the corner.
Didim, lots of spots around here, all within 30min from Didim. I will not tell u about the exact locations, but this area definitely has some great potential. Most likely the big lagoon with random sandbars which goes along the coast for 17Kilometers!!! It can be very shallow in some spots and knee to waist deep in others. The best spot is a bit smelly, caused by the fermented mud, but who cares if u got a perfect flat water spot... think positive, u got a free mud pack (-;

There is another small spot called "flip flop beach" with some nice little kickers, this spot is not for beginners, there are sharp rocks on both sides and the space is limited. The name is not official, it's called like that because the first to experience this beach found it covered wt hundreds of flip flops... sound like Koh Phangan after full moon party.

One last spot is at the Harbour, we did not had too much wind there but it is also a flat water spot within the harbour. Setup on the pier and ride in front of it, there are windweehls all along the top of the surrounding mountains, so there is a lot of wind around this area.




We spent one night in a friends place close to Didim, this restaurant is mostly visited by Yacht charters and it's placed within a stunning bay. Some trollers coming back from a night out at sea in the morning unloading their catch of the day. Special thx for his hospitality and the lovely, rich breakfast the Kaptan Restaurant.You got a very picturesque place there.

I arrived at the Istanbul bus terminal and went straight to the airport wt the Metro. The 12h bus ride was not that much of a sleeper as i thought, so my butt hearts already... could someone please go ahead and push the science of beaming. Well at least the bus was cheap only 35Euro, no luggage limit... not bad.

Now i'm sitting in the Airport in Istanbul wt another 15h journey ahead... think i cannot sit for a while after this (-; At least i found time to update my Blog and i know my winterseason in Boracay will be a blast again!!

Cheeers from Istanbul and teşekkürler to all my friends in this Country
xoxo Read Full...

Silvaplana... the 4th KTE tourstopp

we do it again... just 3days had past since we ended the last event in Sylt. The forecast looked very promissing for the next 4days.

I went up to silvaplana wt the train, as the mountains were a bit steep for my vespa... The train ride is one of the most scenic rides in Europe, along the Swiss mountains. The railroad climbs up the mountains smooth like a snake.

What a blast, the first day skippers meeting was early as usuall...10AM, we had set up a freestyle square and a course for the racing already by that time.


It was a great meet n greet again, as most competitiors came straight from Sylt. I gotta say it feels like a big family on the KTE, u know everyone and u can have a good day at the lake and a hard night in the bars.



The judge team was very international again and we got a good bond all together.









Silvaplana lake has some special conditions for the riders, u gotta use a 2meter bigger kite then usual, caused by the thin air up here on 1700m.
The wind should start if there is a slight breez from north east and the sun is out.
On Friday we got blessed wt winds all afternoon till the rain came around 5PM, we got the full single elimination ladder done, races were postponed to the next day after the wind did not come back till 6PM. So we went for dinner around 7PM and all of a sudden all kite were back out in the water till after 8PM.
The next day promissed some good winds all afternoon... but we got 0... so we did some SUP board racing and slack line. We called it a day again around 6PM... 6.15PM the wind kicked in again.. we could have done some races till 8PM but when u call it a day u can't get back. So we had to hope for Sunday... pricegiving ceremony was scheduled for 3PM...

Most rider didn't show up till late, cause they know that winds here do not blow before noon. It looked like we didnt get wind for the racing.. think that would have been the first event wt FS done but no racing... last announcement 2.30PM... and again by surprise the wind came back. Light but enough for a race.
So we got it all done again... everyone was happy that we did it.

I had a good ride back wt Bruno Sroka from France. He lifes at the north west tip of France and had a long (12h) way home after dropping me off in Zurich.
We had a good laugh when we drove throu Zurich behind Joharas colorful, graffity van. She was on tour wt Maike and Nicky and they had a good party in the van... lucky they did not cause a accident wt some drivers on the opposite lanes that could not stop staring at the van. (-:

So another successful event is done... Poland to come in August. Read Full...