08.08.10 GILI TRAWANGAN

Mr. Trip planned a diving tour today and because I am a little claustrophobic and so not into diving at the moment I was fine taking care of the kids. But we decided to join him to “divers paradise” at one of the three Gili Islands called Gili Trawangan. Oh wow, this is another former hippie paradise occupied by the new part time hippies, so beautiful!! It is not far away, 30 minutes by boat from Lombok and so “Shanti”. Sorry Christian Kracht for using your term idea (Sanskrit शान्तिः śāntiḥ means peace). Everything which is p.c. in the hippie regulations is “Shanti”.

When we got there I was afraid, heard about some Goa parties going on and I didn't want to make another 98 Dollar Ibiza experience. The main street with a couple of restaurants and bottle shops is a little crowded and me and the kids decided to take a horse Taxi, the only vehicles allowed on the island besides bicycles, although big A felt sorry for the horses.
As soon as you leave the main road it is so damn “Shanti” unbelievable, young beautiful people hanging out at the white beaches and the turquoise ocean. They have little bungalows there with the space of a king size bed, but hey what else do you need? Lombok and the Gili Islands seem to be the ideal place to go for the next 2 years before its too crowded, so hurry up and get your tiny sexy bungalow.

Shanti Mrs. Trip

08.08.10 LOMBOK “Holiday Resort Lombok”

Have to admit I haven't seen the Island by day yet. All I have seen is our Resort which is called Holiday Resort Lombok,
sounds creepy, I know. And I don't know if I would recommend it.
If you are more the 5 star design person who prefers upholstered deck chairs, don't go. It is a little past its time and the bathrooms need to be refreshed, I hope they can hear me know. “Hello please renovate the bathrooms!!”
But if you don't mind old bathrooms and you like to refill your minibar by yourself at the bottle shop next door, it is actually a good place to stay, has a huge beautiful pool and a nice garden and for the ones traveling with kids it has a kids club too.

But sorry guys, this deck chair behaviour sucks. People start reserving pool chairs at 8.00 o'clock in the morning, I can't stand this.
I thought this is a German habit, but as we seem to be the only German family and the only family without a chair, this prejudice needs to be revised. Did find a lonely chair at the pool pump, which might have been the reason that it was still vacant. So I took the chair and brought it into my garden as you can see. After dinner I saw my dutch neighbours having a glass of wine there and you know what happened the next day: the whole dutch family moved into my garden including grandma. Super, now I have them directly in front of my apartment. No offense, I like them, but this is day two at Holiday Resort and again no chair for me. Luckily we are leaving tomorrow to a new fancy place.

best Mrs. Trip

07.08.10 LOMBOK, auch schön wenn nix passiert, how nice if nothing happens

Surface is an illusion but so is depth. (David Hockney)

For Andrew

To start a travel magazine and a blog sets yourself under pressure to have some amazing experiences and to post great adventures. Which is actually the opposite of the holiday intention, where I myself try to wipe out my brain. I am reading a book written by Christian Kracht ” Der gelbe Bleistift" (The yellow pencil) travel experiences in Asia. Collected stories from 1992-1999 which he wrote and experienced for a German Sunday newspaper ”Welt am Sonntag”. After reading his first Novel “Faserland” I didn't touch any other book he wrote even though I likes it, but I didn't care for his arrogant attitude so much. But this one is great. What a pleasure to experience boredom and to experience nothing. Maybe I grew older and left my student idealism behind and start enjoying 5 star hotels with no regret.
Back to my travel blog/magazine project. Today I experienced nothing. A perfect holiday at the pool: the pool huge and perfect, the weather is great, not too hot, not too windy. The kids had fries for lunch, I had “Gado Gado” which is an Indonesian salad with egg and peanut sauce, times changed and I had my Gado Gado for the first time being served as Indonesian summer roll, Mr. Trip had a club sandwich. Front of the gates, meaning at the stairs down to the beach there were the hawkers lurking for the tourists to buy a sarong, a braided bracelet or having a massage, I don't dare to go to the beach. Don't want to get annoyed and don't want to have a guilty conscience and I don't like massages either. Sometimes I think I am the only person on earth who doesn't like massages. It is to intimate for me, I don't like being touched, I don't care why, I simply don't like it, I can't relax and it doesn't make me feel relaxed, sorry no doesn't work for me! Briefly I thought if I should go and buy a damn sarong have a nice chat with the guy and learn something about the people here. I tell him my plans about the travel blog and he invites me for dinner at his house, his wife and his 4 kids expecting us. We go into his house, which is simply furnished but nice, everybody is so nice to us. Little z is very shy and is afraid, she doesn't want to go into the house, she doesn't like the smell. I take some pictures of the house and of my new friends. He shows us his family album and is very proud of his new camera he bought one year ago. After a very nice evening we take a Taxi back to our hotel.
Well, just an idea I say to myself, once more I put some sunscreen on (Korres Sun Protection SPF15 Sweet Orange) and go for a swim.
best Mrs. Trip



Die Idee ein Reisemagazin bzw. einen Blog zu starten setzt einen natürlich auch unter Druck etwas zu posten bzw. zu erleben.Was somit im Gegensatz zur Idee Urlaub steht, denn so würde ich Urlaub für mich definieren, möchte ich mich auf eine Art im Urlaub geistig entleeren. Lese gerade ein Buch von Christian Kracht “Der gelbe Bleistift” Reisegeschichten aus Asien. Gesammelte Geschichten von 1992-1999 die er als Kolumnist für die Welt am Sonntag erlebt hat. Habe eigentlich nach Faserland kein Buch mehr von ihm angefasst, da mir seine arrogante Attitude auf die nerven ging obwohl ich das Buch auch eigentlich mochte. „Der gelbe Bleistift” ist großartig, schön mit ihm gemeinsam die Langeweile und das nichts zu erleben. Irgendwie passiert nix und dann doch so viel. Vielleicht habe ich einfach meine vermeintlich studentischen Idealismus aufgegeben und mittlerweile keine Problem mehr damit ein 5 Sterne Hotel nicht spießig sonder großartig zu finden. Zurück zum Reisemagazin, es ist nichts passiert heute, wie schön, erzähle etwas über meinen Tag am Pool: Wasser ist angenehm der Pool riesig und das Klima in Lombok super geil. Heiß und windig, nichts zu viel und nicht zu wenig. Zu Mittag gab es Pommes für die Kinder, für Mutti Gado Gado (Indonesischer Tofu Salat mit Ei und Erdnußsoße, neuerdings hübsch aufbereitet als indonesische Sommerrolle) Mr Trip hatte Club Sandwich. Vor den Toren des Resort, also an den Treppen zum Strand hin lauern die Händler mit ihren Massagen und Batiktüchern und man möchte nicht zum Strand gehen. Will nicht genervt werden und kein schlechtes Gewissen haben müssen, ich will keinen Sarong und auch keine Massage, ich mag keine Massagen, nie. Denke immer ich bin die einzige Person auf diesem Planeten die keinen Bock auf Massage hat? Ist mir zu intim will nicht angefasst werden, mir egal warum, ich mag es einfach nicht, ich kann mich dabei nicht entspannen und es entspannt auch nix bei mir, ne sorry bei mir nicht! Kurz überlege ich ob ich nicht vielleicht doch einfach hingehen sollte, ihm einen scheiß Sarong abkaufen, bisschen mit ihm quatschen etwas über Land und Leute erfahren über sein Leben hier auf der Insel. Ich erzähle ihm von meinem Reisemagazin und er lädt mich daraufhin zu sich nach Hause ein zum Abendessen. Seine Frau und seine 4 Kinder erwarten uns. Wir gehen in sein Haus, sehr einfach eingerichtet aber nett alle sind sehr nett zu uns. Little Z ist etwas schüchtern und hat Angst reinzugehen, sie mag den Geruch nicht. Ich mache Photos von seinem Haus und seiner Familie.
Er zeigt uns sein Familienalbum und ist stolz auf seine kleine Kamera die er sich vor einem Jahr gekauft hat. Nach einem netten Abend und einem leckeren Abendessen verabschieden wir uns und fahren mit Taxi zurück ins Hotel.
War nur so ne Idee denke ich, creme mich noch mal ein mit meiner „Korres Sun Protection SPF15 im Sweet Orange Duft” und gehe noch ne runde schwimmen.

Grüße Mrs. Trip

06.08.10 Bangkok-Denpasar-Mataram

Leaving Bangkok didn't heart so much because I am on holiday and not so much into experiencing cities at the moment.
But I want to add that Bangkok is for sure an interesting place to go.

I saw the Movie “Dear John” on the plane a very easy, romantic lovestory about an all american soldier and a student falling in love. He has to leave for war for 12 month and she has to finish University and all they have is their love letters...Very perfect for my “jet lag/ it is still to early for me/I cant read a book now”mood.

Landed in Bali at 2 p.m and our plane to Lombok was at 6.50 p.m.
So what do we do? After Immigration and getting rid of our luggage

Oops Nol. Marcus: “where is my backpack, shit!! Left it at the luggage belt...... Got it puh!”

Oops No.2 Christiane: where is the camera suitcase? shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, I left it at the stairs, I thought you have it, shit...... Oh yes it is still there, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, puh got it”


It was 3.30 pm, still some time to explore a good place for lunch. You need to know that Mr. Trip hates nothing more than to sit and wait, he gets bored very easily and we don't like him being bored. So after debating if this makes sense for lets say 45 Minutes to go to Seminyak, I agreed and we were on our way to Ku Da Te (Marco Polo and Monocle say it is the place where all the stylish people meet). Spending my holiday at “Ku Da Te” would be the right torture for me. Why would a European fly for 20 hours to end up in Ibiza, that doesn't make any sense? If you are into loud Techno music, a terrace crowded by beautiful young people and red plastic hearts hanging from the ceiling, then this is definetly your place to go, it is next to the Oberoi Hotel you won't miss it, have fun and say hello to the bar tender, he won't see me again.

But hey i am fine experiences can also turn out bad, this is the idea of experience, you never know how it might end up.

We left early at 4.45 p.m. approx. after 25 Minutes we knew it might take at least take 30 minutes to go back to the Airport..so wrong. Meanwhile it happened to have a fire somewhere and we were stuck in the traffic, at 6.00 p.m. we were not far away from airport but not there. We called the airline telling our desaster and you wont believe it, they promised to wait for us. Still not there Marcus jumed out the car and jogged to the locker, we arrived at 6.40 p.m 10 minutes before departure and the friendly stewards at the check in smiled and checked us in, love this country and hate my husband.

Todays exicting experience in Dollars:

18 Dollar for the locker (2 Dollars per item, in our case: pay for 8 and you get one free)
12 Dollar for the Taxi to Seminyak (I make you 120.000 rupies, good price!)
58 Dollars ( 2 beer, 1 water, 2 sprite)
10 Dollar for the Taxi back including 2 Dollars tip (120.000 rupies wasn't a bargain, i guess)
--------
98 Dollar

best Mrs. Trip

06.08.10 BANGKOK Lost in Banyan Tree

sorry I might have to repeat and recap this "cliché" and prejudice thing:

Yes, Bangkok, at least in rain season, feels like "Blade Runner" just that it is way more SciFi. And it made me feel like Mr Blundstone.

To keep the movie clichés in full force here is our as impressive Banyan Tree Hotel family suite kind of ballroom space. And yes all kids hooked up on jetlag we have little Z haunting you through the estates/residences as these pictures are all taken after east-asian midnight.

Thank you Banyan Tree for hosting our asian touch down so comfortably. The place first felt more like the above mentioned "Lost in translation"-set business hotel tower but then with all entertainment and the fully equipped kitchen and some midnight home cooking it really was a nice nest.

in detail
- a dozen remote controls for the various entertainment technology,
- among these three TV sets the size of a rembrandt
2 fridges, one with and one without mini-bar configureation
2 bathrooms incl 2 bathtubs 4 sinks and a couple of toilets

oh and then not to forget: MR STEAM, my new best friend.
this is something I do want at home. simple and easy:
two floor to ceiling Glass panes, one with a glass door marking a room in a convenient size. in it: a rain shower. a marble bench to sit on. and a little device mounted on the outside wall with the Mr Steam labelling on that turns this whole funky chamber into a full functioning post modern steam bath. I used Mr Steams services every day (also as I didn´t manage to visit the impressive spa floor (well my wife did)). and I would do Mr Steam every day at home too.
so that´s one first souvenir I will take home. at least the layout of our new wellness space, and will start researching glass pane and ....

oh and the swinger club kimono´s were really light and comfortable.
and looks like the corporate design is done by the same guy that looks after "dieci corso como" in milan.

best
Mr. Trip