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.
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
Und schon sind die Ferien wieder vorbei... Ägypten wow ich schwebe immer noch auf Wolke sieben. Wirklich einer der schönsten Tauchplätze auf Erden ! Wir wurden verwöhnt und haben viele Hammer- und Weissspitzenhaie gesehen.
Jetzt aber zuerst zu meiner Karte, diese habe ich für die Hochzeit vom nächsten Wochenende gebastelt. Simple aber doch elegant.
Good Morning,
I'm back from amazing Egypt, time went by so fast... I'm still dreaming of the breathtaking dives we did the past seven days.We saw several hammerheads and white tip sharks !!
Now back to my card. I have a wedding the coming week-end and this is my gift card for the bridal couple. Simple but elegant.
I hope your week started well off. I'm sharing a birthday card this morning with a self made background. Some of you may now that I love scuba diving and therefor also love fish :) I used the stamp set Quite a Catch from Gina K. Love how this fishes all look so happy... The circle die cut and the sentiment are both dies from My favorite things. Die-namics Stitched Mini Scallop Circle STAX and Die-namics Happy Birthday. I die cut the happy birthday sentiment 4 times. Simple but fun card.
And to finish off this post some pictures of my last dive holiday in Egypt. I was there in May.
I'm going back to the same place this week-end. Amazing scuba diving for 6 days in the red sea.
Enjoy....
Our French Boat - Nautile Evo
Sun Deck
Fun diving time
Pictures made by my friend Annie
Have a good day and see you soon for some new pictures from my last diving trip.
No news for some time... I was gone for a 2 week holiday. Yes yes I went to Bonaire a beautiful Island north of Venezuela which belongs to the Dutch Antilles. I will share further down some pictures from this paradise island. I spent most of my time with scuba diving.
This is a card I made before I left. I created a distress background and used one of the first stamp I bought way back from gorjuss girls. I colored this sweet girl with Copics. Love the blue - pink combo.
Willkommen zur Mai Challenge beim STEMPELGARTEN. Gerne sehen wir diesen Monat Projekte zum Thema EMBOSSING. Ich habe mich etwas schwer getan und habe tatzächlich 3 Karten gebastelt bis ich mit dieser zufrieden war. Das Papier stammt von einem Bo Bunny 6x6 Block. Verwendet habe ich zum ersten Mal meinen Text-Stempel von My Favorite Things. Ich finde dies gibt einen romantischen Touche. Den Text habe ich mit schwarzem embossing Pulver von Zing aufgetragen. Dann noch ein paar Blümchen und Perlen um das Ganze zu vervollständigen. Der Thanks Stempel stammt aus der Paper Smooches - Bold Buzzwords Kollektion.
Good Morning,
Welcome to our May Challenge atSTEMPELGARTEN. We would like to see your projects with EMBOSSING on it. It took my some time to get to this card. Did 3 projects before I was happy with this one. DP is from a Bo Bunny 6x6 pad. The background text is a stamp from My Favorite Things. I think it looks really romantic. I used black Zing embossing powder. The Thanks sentiment is from the Paper Smooches - Bold Buzzwords set.
Ihr könnt bis zum 31. Mai teilnehmen. Gewinnen könnt
Ihr dieses Bastelpacket im Wert von CHF 20.-
You can
participate until the 31st of May. And this is the prize you can
win, worth CHF
20.-
Und natürlich gibts auch ein Paar Bilder aus meinem Urlaub in Thailand. Khao Lak war unsere erste Destination. Tauchen waren wir auf den Similan Islands, Traumhaft schön. Danach noch 4 Tage in Phuket (Kata) und 3 Tage zum Schluss in Bangkok.
And of course I'm sharing some pictures of my holiday in Thailand. Khao Lak was our first destination where we went diving on the Similan Islands. 4 more days in Phuket (Kata) and finsihing with a stay for 3 nights in Bangkok.
Es ist Challenge Zeit beim STEMPELGARTEN. Als Thema haben wir im Oktober, Süssigkeiten-Verpackung. Ich habe mich für eine Pillowbox entschlossen. Das Papier passt einfach klasse zum Thema und ist von Bo Bunny. Die kleine Schleife ist eine Stanze von Memory Box und natürlich konnte ich mal wieder nicht auf meine geliebten Doodle Bug Design Inc Sprinkles verzichten. Das Sentiment ist von dem Penny Black Set Hedgie Friends.
Alexandra sucht auch nach neune Design Team Mitglieder. Mehr Informationen dazu findet Ihr auf dem Stempelgarten Blog.
Good Morning,
It's Challenge time at STEMPELGARTEN. This month our theme is Wrapping for Sweets. I chose to create a pillow box. This sweet paper is from Bo Bunny. The little bow is from Memory Box and of course I added my beloved Doodle Bug Design Inc Sprinkles. The sentiment is from the Hedgie Friends set from Penny Black.
Alexandra is also looking for new DT Members. For more information have a look at the Stempelgarten Blog.
Zu Gewinnen gibt es einen Gutschein im Wert von CHF 20.-
You can win a voucher worth CHF 20.-
Hier noch ein paar Bilder aus meinem letzten Urlaub. Ich durfte wieder meinem lieblings Hobby, nebst dem Basteln nachgehen. 1 Woche Ägypten, Rotes Meer. Es war traumhaft und sehr heiss vor Ort (+35°C).
And here some shots from my last holiday. Practicing my
favorite hobby besides, making cards. Diving in the Ocean. More precisely in
Egypt, Read Sea. It was amazing and really hot, over 35°C.
Auch in Ägypten sind die Menschen Kreativ ;0) dieser Elefant haben wir nach dem Tauchen bei uns im Zimmer vorgefunden. Hihi einfach spitze nicht ?
Egyptians are also very creative persons. Look what we found in our room after diving :0)
Und schon ist es wieder Zeit für eine neue Challenge beim Stempelgarten. Als Thema haben wirBlütentraum. Verwendet habe ich eine Blumenstanze von Die-Namites, der Spruch ist von CC Designs und in silber embossing aufgetargen.
Good Morning,
Challenge time again at Stempelgarten with the theme Flowers. I used a flower die from Die-Namites and a sentiment from CC Designs, which was embossed in silver.
Ihr könnt bis zum 30. Juni teilnehmen. Gewinnen könnt Ihr eine Gutschein im Stempelgarten Shopim Wert von CHF 20.-
