I was gone again for another dive trip in Egypt. I am addicted to the red sea it's such an amazing place for diving. This time you can see some wrecks and a white tip shark I caught with my Go Pro Hero 5. Hope you enjoy my pictures.
Just a short post to share a card I made for my Mom. Haven't been crafting forever as you can read in my previous blog post... Have to say that I enjoyed getting back to my dies and design papers. Hope to be able to craft more often again...
I would like to be part of the BASTEL-TRAUM Challenge who's theme is rainbow colors.
It has been quiet on my blog for some time. I have actually not been crafting since several months, really needed a break !! But I think I will soon get back to crafting, miss it...
Maybe you have been wondering what I was doing all that time... I had some changes last year in my personal life and also needed a break from work and my whole life here in Switzerland. After 15 years in the same company my boss let me take a 9 week unpaid leave. So I decided to travel for 2 months and left on the 8th of October form Geneva with my backpack and diving gear to discover beautiful Indonesia.
I was lucky to travel to several places throughout whole Indonesia and most of the time I was diving :) I did 60 dives in total !! In case you didn't get it diving is my biggest passion !
My trip started in Bali where I spent the first night in Sanur close to the harbor. I planned ahead to spend my first days on the little neighbor island Nusa Lembongan. Other from that I didn't book anything in advance except the last 2 weeks of my trip, where my sister came and joined me for some diving in Komodo national park. It was important to me to move freely whenever I felt like doing so and not having to follow a schedule.
The first week was just amazing with incredible dives spots around Nusa Lembongan ! Many fun people, beautiful sunsets and a lot of laughter. I became friends with two guys doing their dive master at the Two Fish dive shop where I stayed. Matthias did 2 weeks of his training on another island called Lombok so I decided to follow him for more diving. After a few days I chose to head back to Bali and discover finally the rich culture and one of the most famous islands Indonesia's. My favorite spot was the town of Ubud a natural, cultural and artistic place. Which can also be noisy but as soon as you leave the main street you can find a peaceful place. I spent more than one week in Ubud taking cooking classes, going to a yoga lesson and discovering the green rice fields by bicycle.
After about two weeks in
Bali I wanted to discover a different part of Indonesia and chose as next destination, one of the
most northern Islands actually not that far from the Philippines. It took about a 3
hour flight and I reached Manado airport. On the same day I got to Bunaken island
which was my favorite place for diving throughout my 8 weeks in Indonesia. Check out myYouTube video below if you want to get a little idea of the diving spots. I
also liked this place a lot because I got to meet up again with my two friends
Matthias and Ian. We even celebrated Matthias birthday at the house of our dive
instructor. Very nice to experience the local way of celebrating together.
Before
heading back to Bali meeting my sister I wanted to see another place in north
Sulawesi and followed this time a Swiss lady whom I met on Bunaken as well. We stayed
at an incredible place owned by an Italian couple. "Coral Eye" is an outpost for marine studies on Bangka island. The easy and friendly atmosphere made us feel like home with a breath taking front view, white sand beach and a long dry dock from where we would start our dive trips.
Meeting point with my
sister Nadine was Denpasar Airport in Bali. We stayed for one night close to
the airport since we had our connecting flight to Labuan Bajo – Flores on the
next day. My sister is a diver as well and so we decided to discover the famous
Komodo National Park. Amazingly rich marine life with our highlight looking at
manta rays over an hour. We also saw on land the Komodo dragons, which are very
lazy but scary looking giant lizards. A fun week of getting to know more new people
(mainly divers) and enjoying the company of Nadine.
My trip was supposed to
end in Bali from where I had booked my flight back to Switzerland. I was also planning
on showing my sister Ubud and other nice places in Bali. At the end we couldn't
go back because of Mount Agung which had erupted and made flying very
complicated. Our flight from Flores to Bali got postponed several times to the following
day. We had to find a plan B which was flying to another place without an erupting
volcano…
Luckily we managed to transfer
our local flight to Jakarta instead of Bali. Of course we also had to change
our international flight with Qatar Airlines. They were very cooperative ! And so
we spent our last days in Singapore instead of Bali visiting our cousins who
leave there since several years.
We got back to
Switzerland on December 5th, the outside temperature was about 3 degree Celsius. What a change... But home is still home :)
This trip just gave me
what I need at that time, a break and a period just for myself. I am grateful for
everything I was able to experience.
Have a look at some of my
pictures taken during my trip.
FIRST EVENING AND ENJOYING AN AMAZING SUNSET ON NUSA LEMBONGAN
READY TO DIVE :)
A LOT OF LAUGHTER WITH MATTHIAS AND IAN
WILD DEERS AT THE NORTH WESTERN PART OF BALI
RICE FIELDS BALI
BREAK BETWEEN 2 DIVES ON BANGKA ISLAND
FRONT BEACH AT THE RESORT (CORAL EYE) ON BANGKA ISLAND
ENJOYING A LOCAL BEER WITH MY SIS AND PEPE
OUR BOAT IN KOMODO - THIS PICTURE WAS TAKEN WITH A DRONE BY PEPE
