Two weeks in paradise! I don’t know how it gets better than this!

Time to say Goodbye. It’s the last morning on Gili Trawangan and I can’t sleep anymore :( It’s time to write something for my blog even if I have no idea how to describe the last 2 weeks. It was definitely one of the best times of my travel, unforgettable wonderful all the time! :o)  

I’m so sad about leaving Gili in 3 hours, about leaving indonesia tomorrow morning. Even if I’m really looking forward to be in Singapore and travel through beautiful Malaysia, saying goodbye hurts too much.

We started our asia adventure two weeks ago in Legian where we stayed in the best hostel of the world “The Island” ( I loved it so much! :o) ) and met this amazing group of people, together we had one of the best party nights ever (driving to the club with three people on a scooter shouting all the time, high-fiving people was for sure the greatest trip to a club that I’ve ever experienced, felt like flying!) The next morning we experienced “Hangover III” on a day that I’ll definitely never forget!!! We lost Manu and nobody had a clue what happened last night…  It was awesome to belong to this lovely group of people and telling them goodbye was already really, really hard. After 3 days in Legian Manu, Maren (we’ve got to know her 2 month ago in Noosa) and me started our Bali journey with a “guide” to Ubud, the cultural centre of Bali. We visited huge rice fields, different kind of temples and small local villages on the way and bumped in the middle of a Hinduism ceremony which was a strange but awesome experience!!!

Arriving in Ubud, feeling so great there from the beginning made us stay there longer as we planned it. I really enjoyed the peaceful, relaxed, spiritual atmosphere without people who try to sell you stuff all the time or never stop talking to you. Really good shops and restaurants, beautiful art, Yoga and meditation centres, this special atmosphere made Ubud to my favourite place on Bali :-)

“Eat Pray Love” was filmed next to Ubud, unfortunately we couldn’t find Ketut. I heard he’s still living there ;-)

Did you know that Balinese have just four names? There are for names for the first, second, third and the forth children. If a family gets a fifth children they start again with the first name which is “Wayan“. But of cause lots of the people give themselves (english) nic names as well.

After two days and an unforgettable morning in Ubud’s monkey forest that owns so many really impressive giant trees and “cheeky” monkeys ;) we made our way to Lovina at Balis north coast to go diving the next day on Menjangan Island :-DDD

The way to Lovina inland was just soooo beautiful, we passed the volcano area, got this breathtaking views from the top of the mountains, rice fields, deep green jungle, clouds, lakes. I just wanted to jump out of the car and just stay, stay there and enjoy this view this beauty of the landscape every day.

Bali is so beautiful! I can’t believe how lucky we are that we’re here and that Maren, Manu and me were such a great travel group that visited most of the island in such a short time.

If I would have been just by myself I’m sure I would have stayed longer in Legian, longer in Ubud, longer in Lovina because I hated all this Goodbyes so much. But fortunately we did it! Like this we saw so many thing that I’ll definitely never forget, that still make me smile every day, I love being so happy when I think back :-DDDD

The diving on Menjangan was just perfect. We were just 4 people on the boat and everyone got his own guide and after 3 years of not diving it felt just soooo awesome diving on a “wall”, seeing a shark, diving into a small cave, oh my God, I was sooo excited :-DDD

Having lunch on a paradise beach after that, this day really made me happy :)

The next day we drove to Padangbai and had some nice stops on the way again. Our guide wanted us to snorkel/dive in Tulamben to see the US Liberty Ship wreck but the waves and the current were too strong on this day :-( =Another reason to come back to Bali very, very soon! :)

We visited Tirtagganga, a water palace and our lovely guide took us to a rice field and explained us how rice is grown on Bali. We learned so much about the Balinese life and the culture. Really interesting but I’m sure that it would take us years to really understand the religion and the traditions :)

The next morning we took the ferry to Gili Trawangan, the “party island” of the three Gili Islands next to Lambok.

Oh my God, my heart stood still when we arrived in paradise! Turquoise, crystal clear water, beach bars, wonderful colourful fishing boats…

OH YES! After around 2 minutes Manu and me made the decision: Forget about Lambok, we’re going to stay here 6 days long…Perfect decision!!!

Maren and me booked ourselves a Fun Dive for the next morning. So good that we did it, so good that Maren picked “Buddha Dive” I loved the people there from the beginning and our first dive at “Shark Point” was just …I can’t find words for it :-DDDD

We saw this huge, giant turtle and sooo many other really big ones, I enjoyed it sooo much and it took me nearly one minutes *lol* before I decided to do my “Advanced Open Water” here on Gili :-D

Wednesday afternoon I visited my first ship wreck (if we forget the really impressive one in the Helenesee in Brandeburg *looool*).

It was just an amazing time to hang around in the diving school, I felt so comfortable and happy and I really started asking myself why I didn’t dive in the last years, and why I didn’t dive on Fiji. I saw this video from a guy I’ve got to know here who dived next to Kuata, the same island we’ve been to. He saw 30 sharks, all sizes, being fed with Tuna heads…Shit, that  I missed that!

Whatever, while diving here I saw sharks, humhead parrot fishes, lots of Nemos and his friends ;-) (Did I saw Dori???) , angelfishes, lionfishes, turtles ( I love turtles!!!), different kinds of morays and lots of beautiful fishes...I have no idea about their names ;-). Even if I suck in fish identification, I enjoyed it a lot! It’s going to be a long way till I’ll really know what I see underwater, but I’m sure I’m going to go this way!

Diving made me even more happy than Surfing :)

It showed me again where I belong to…the ocean!

The 6 days on Gili Trawangan made me start realizing some things. I thought back to the time in Byron Bay when I was surfing every day and how Robin called me such a “positive person with so much energy and hope”... I was so happy in this days :) When I started diving the same thing happened…I felt this deep contentment, I loved the feeling to wake up in the morning being just happy because a new day started on which I could go diving. This time I was called “Sunshine” even if stupid things happened I  went on smiling ;)

"It’s all about being happy :) No regrets! This is the life I choose." :)

The time on Gili brought up the question if this is maybe the life I want to live, being next to the sea diving & surfing everyday, earning not a lot money with it, but living on the place that makes you happy the most... ?!?

At the moment I can’t think about anything else than going back to Gili, staying for months, doing my Divemaster there, but before I could do that I definitely need a lot more experience to feel confident and safe underwater:)

I had this two stupid accidents while diving (problems with equalization my masque & bumped into a sea urchin), had to go to the doctors three times, take three different kind of medicines, but it didn’t bother me at all. I went on diving, I was just so sorry for my wonderful instructor Bruno who had to take care of Chaos-Miri all the time ;-).

Even though I looked like an alien I was still so happy about just being on Gili, having amazing people and beautiful nature around :)
We had such a great time on the beach, saw beautiful sunsets, stayed in a lovely bungalow, enjoyed crazy party nights and fire shows. I really felt like being in paradise :-D

2 weeks in Indonesia: beautiful landscape, unforgettable dives, wonderful hotels, cultural experiences, amazing food and fruit juices, doing everything that I wanted to do because it’s so cheap over here, feeling like flying all the time…. :-D

I can’t say how happy I am about what kind of wonderful people I met in the two weeks here. I enjoyed every minute diving, cruising around the island, partying, talking, laughing with all of them so much, they made every day wonderful and unforgettable! *smile*

Meine Lieben,

Jetzt ist aus meiner normalerweise kurzen englischen Einleitung doch zum ersten Mal ein langer Text geworden. Ich habe auf Gili außer natürlich mit Manu und Maren nur Englisch gesprochen und auch, wenn außer einer Tauchlehrerin aus San Fransisco niemand Muttersprachler Englisch war, haben wir uns mit unseren Kauderwelsch gut unterhalten können. In meinem Kopf war also irgendwie zu viel Englisch als ich angefangen habe für den Blog zu schreiben.

Im Moment bin ich im Kopf noch überhaupt nicht wirklich von Bali oder Gili weg. Ich denke permanent nur, dass ich ja eh so schnell wie möglich zurück muss und im nächsten Gedankengang wird mir dann schon wieder klar, dass es nicht genau so sein wird wie es jetzt war und dass einige dieser bezaubernden Menschen nicht mehr da sein werden.

Kann ich wirklich ein Tauchlehrer sein? Das Buddha-Team bestand aus Lehrern, die alle über 30 waren…ich habe also noch viel, viel Zeit um mir die Erfahrung und das Wissen an zu eignen und da liegen sicherlich noch viele Tauchgänge vor mir, aber im Moment realisiere ich gerade so extrem, dass Tauchen und Surfen die Dinge auf meiner Reise sind, die mich am glücklichsten gemacht haben. Ich bin so gespannt, was die Zukunft bringt, ich bin so gespannt, ob ich Bruno, Therese und Nathalie wirklich in spätestens 3 Monaten wieder sehe und dann dort meinen Divemaster mache. Ich bin jetzt schon traurig, dass Manuel und Dimitri nicht mehr da sein werden. Was für einen Quatsch ich mir in meinem Kopf schon wieder zusammen brodel ist echt Wahnsinn. Im Moment fühlt sich das so richtig an, aber seit wann kommen die Dinge auf meiner Reise so wie ich sie plane *lach* Ich habe viele verrückte Ideen, male ein Leben am Meer aus, frage mich, ob das vielleicht der richtige Weg für mich ist. Ich bin froh, dass in Asien genau das passiert ist, was ich erhofft habe: Ich bin aus vollem Herzen hier, manchmal bleibt mein Herz stehen vor Glück und Dankbarkeit, es nicht fassen können und genau das ausstrahlen, das ist alles, was ich wollte :-D

Ich verabschiede mich immer mehr von meinem Australientraum und sehe Australien wirklich nun mehr für’s Arbeiten. Ich habe keine Ahnung wie ich Neuseeland noch auf die erhofften 2,5 Monate kriegen soll, wenn ich doch eigentlich am liebsten gerade einfach nur in Indonesien leben würde, von Bali nach Komodo, von Lambok nach Java hüpfen würde und dann monatelang auf Gili einfach nur ein Tauchleben führen will. Was ist mit Australiens Westküste, will ich das überhaupt noch? Die Zukunft wird viele Entscheidungen bringen. Im Moment versuche ich Indonesien zu verarbeiten und erstmal anzuhaken, da ich nämlich nicht klar denken und nicht schlafen kann. Ich muss mich jetzt erstmal auf die nächst anstehenden Kapitel unserer Reise konzentrieren…Singapur & Malaysia!

Ich hab noch so viele Notizen über Indonesien gemacht, weil es einfach sooo ein krasses Land ist :))) Ich werde euch unsere „Aufgefallen“- Liste in den nächsten Tagen noch posten. Jetzt gibt’s erstmal diesen Blogeintrag mit dem ich gerade irgendwie gar nicht richtig zufrieden bin. So ein Gedankenchaos, so viele Dinge gar nicht erwähnt, in den 2 Wochen ist einfach zu viel passiert, so viel auf mich eingeprasselt, so viele krasse Menschen/Männer, die meinen Kopf verdrehen *lach*
Erstmal loslassen und weiter gehen und dankbar sein für das, was wir erleben durften :)

Love, Miri