check this out, awesome!!!!

http://www.bloesem.blogs.com/

Buszkeseg

Buszkeseggel tolt el bemutatni a kovetkezo oldalt, hisz sziporkazo noverem remek oldalarol irnak elismero szavakkal:

http://inspiraciok.blogspot.com/

I am more than proud to share the following link as it is talking about my "sparkling-minded" :) sister's great home design page:

http://inspiraciok.blogspot.com/

Bali stories

BALI… I am sayin’ BALI
Our loooong time awaited Bali trip has finished yesterday, 5th Nov which is Deepevali the holy celebration’s day of the Indian subcontinent. We especially me waited for my parents like X-mas, its been one too many months I have not seen my family which is why I wanted to get the best out of the time when my mom and dad started their very first journey to the mysterious Asian continent.

I was very proud of them, they traveled through half the world without any problem, and let’s not forget the problem that they hardly speak any English, which is actually changing, even my mom has picked up quite a bit… just basic stuff like ‘cup of coffee’, ‘no I don’t want to buy your day tour’ etc.

So 29th October in the evening we all got to Bali and as my dad is crazy for water we planned to spend the first couple of days at the sea side, at the place called Sanur. Sanur is overlooked by many; mostly the people there were the older generation but Mike and I also enjoyed the little bit laid back attitude.

Our first accommodation was a villa, nice and spacious the downstairs area was for my parents and the upstairs area was for us. It was pretty and the garden was exotic with the bright green leaves everywhere. As we got there quite late we said no to the sea restaurants and just stayed inside of our facilities and had our first meal in the hotel restaurant. Beer being cheaper we tried the local Bintang which passed the test and became our beer for the rest of our time. (Heineken was a strong competitor though)

First morning my instinct woke me up way too early, wasn’t even 7am, I thought to myself let’s see the sea before my parents just to make sure that everything is cool. Somehow I had this feeling that I have to double check it, donno why.

Well soon enough I was becoming worried… the little street which supposed to lead one to the beach apart from looking like a 3rd world’s back street had 3 unfriendly, way too big dogs on the left hand side and on the right hand side people were collecting the unofficial street trash corner…. yaaa

I walked past the garbage part trying to not inhale too often when I ended up on the “main” street which reminded me of Marocco (who knows me knows that I really did not have great time in Marocco). The street was filled with locals, the poorer types, sitting around, waiting on the dirty pavements, street dogs running, cars busses… oh that was too much for 7am! I run back to the reception and asked… ‘Are you serious, this is the neighborhood?’

Affirmative! Ok I got worried, not because my parents are picky but even for my somewhat South East Asian trained eyes were surprised. I sneaked into the villa, woke Mike up and asked his help, we walked down to the beach and generally speaking had a second look but the more we looked the worst it seemed.
We came up with 3 options:
A, stay where you are and shut up
B, stay where you are and take taxi to better/cleaner beaches
C, leave ASAP (that was me)

All 4 of us decided to leave the area which was the north part of Sanur, although we liked the villa (the hotel was just 5 years ahead of the area’s development) and took a cab to south of Sanur, we chose another villa which was a bit less modern but the location was unbeatable. Seriously it was 10 m from the beach!!! The hotel had many bungalows, cottages all around the garden which burst with half ripe bananas, flower trees, tropical plants… swimming pool etc.

We had a small stroll down the pedestrian walk along the beach and all the hotels had GEARGIOUS terraces, romantic sets, pools facing the sea …oh it was just perfect. Our hotel was less attractive after all, but still we were very satisfied.
(In the morning we learned that our hotel also has a great terrace which we did not know about :) )

We of course jumped right into the sea, which was 35 degrees hot, very shallow. The surprise in the water was the sea grass, I think hippos would eat that, it was dense like a carpet; huge part of the beach front water was covered with sea grass which made it hard to get into the deeper water as it was not that comfortable to cross the roots and plants. There was a tiny little fish among those grass fields, wow they were aggressive indeed. They were half of your pinkie but they attacked you.

It felt like being hit by them but really they were attacking us and biting hmmm given their size we were puzzled, did not really know what to think of it.
We rented a boat to go passed the grass and the beach area to see some marine life. It was alright but I would not say that the marine life was all that lively but we were happy to see even that much. WE were informed that Bali is no good for snorkeling and in fact it is true.

Amed is a place up in the north west corner of the island where marine life is said to be perfect but Mike found out that the car ride would be 3h one way so we did miss Amed.
We headed down the streets of Sanur central area to see what are the options e.g. the restaurants, shops etc. We decided to try some Balinese massage which Mike and I have already tried on our first Bali trip. It was a bit of a challenge to find a massage place which can give massage to 4 people at the same time. Finally we found a place and I have to say probably it was the best massage we ever got.

All of us were in heaven after an hour of experienced massage hands’ work. Full body massage.. oh heaven not to mention that we paid 8 SGD / 6 USD / 4 EUR / 1,100 HUF per person!!!!! It’s a deal.
The rest of Sanur time was spent in the pool, in the sea and in restaurants.

I have to say we tried, we did try all kind of Balinese flavors and meals but none of them seemed to win. Either it was straight bad like Dad’s curry fished grilled in banana leave (we even sent it back as not edible object) or just not that taste to eat it again. Rice is essential in Bali, rice rice rice, people wake up and eat rice and go to bed eating rice.

I know that in Asia I should not be surprised but I am they definitely ate more than average.
Mike and I planned a trip for each day. First we went down to Uluwatu which is the south tip of Bali, being far from us we did leave a bit late (we had a massage on the beach). There are 2 sea temples on Bali, Uluwatu and Tanah Lot.

The original idea was to build sea temples all around Bali like a pearl necklace and they wanted to be able to see one temple from another as it was meant to protect Bali forever. The great idea resulted 2 temples but the rest never made it, unfortunately. Uluwatu is a spectacular site of a temple on the rocks, the south part of the island does not have a proper beaches but huge cliffs, steep walls and the temple on the top of these rocks promised a great experience. But as we left too late from Sanur we missed the sunset and saw only the last minutes of sunlight, it was pretty but hasn’t impressed us as much as I expected. It was over all nice and still it was well worth the effort of driving there because of the sound of the gigantic waves hitting the rock walls, the cliffs were still great.

This temple was filled with monkeys who have bad reputation as they have stolen all kinds of stuff from previous tourists from hat till camera, from bag till your book and glasses.

They seemed to chill out just fine when we were there but I believe the stories.
The Sunday’s trip was to Tanah Lot which was probably the highlight of our entire trip. It is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Any of us would say that Tanah Lot was absolutely impressive. It was said to be the most photographed site in Bali but I don’t mind the tourist tag, it was beautiful. The idea is the same, temple on the rocks but this time the temple was built on a small rock island just 30-50 steps away from the main land. The whole are is filled with black sand and rocks as it is volcanic material. The pictures can talk for themselves. We went down to the bottom of the rocks and in the sea water foggy, black rocks this place had a very special atmosphere.













Nobody is allowed to step on the small temple island unless you are Balinese, according to the mythology if an unmarried coupled visits the temple they will split up.

It was funny as Mike and separately I was asked to pose in other people’s pictures. Local boys asked me to be the ‘white chick’ in the pictures and Mike as ‘handsome – I will never get you – boy’ in the local girls pictures. …?
We had a 2bucks coconut on the restaurant terrace which was great as it was the first real green skin coconut for my parents. On the horizon the clouds changed color and became angry. It looked like as a seen cut out from the Lord of the Rings, Sauron’s clouds were coming to get us, but we were quicker and by the time the rain came down we were in the car. This trip was just absolutely amazing!

After Sanur we headed to Ubud the most waited place from all Bali as there was nobody who did not agree that UBUD is the best of Bali.
I am sure Mike and I will be stoned to say but guys… what’s all that craziness around UBUD???

We seemed to not get it…?

We had a great accommodation, nice garden, small but ok pool, spacious room and fine bath. We were on the main street of Ubud, the Ubud palace was just down the road, many many pretty Balinese are shops and things. We were lucky with meals, although prices were above Sanur’s. Mike and I were wondering why Ubud is the none-plus-ultra for almost all our friends…? We agreed that if we could rent a bike and bike in the countryside among the rice paddies or if we would have luxus villa for 400USD per night with some awesome view and private masseuse we would not question it for a second, but given the situation we were honestly wondering.

First day we just walked around the area, discovered Ubud ‘village’ and as my parents were tired with aching feet we could not see any rice paddies. Next day we rented a car with a driver and went up to the Batur volcano which last eruption was in 2000. Along the way we saw many villages, rice paddies, local life.

The driver was exceptional he was pretty intelligent and ambitious to learn English well. He was telling us a lot about the locals and their living.
Balinese are seriously religious and superstitious. They think that there is one God, but he has many manifestations thus God can be in sculptures, in stones in places in trees, almost in anything. If you were born with healing power than you have some God in you as well which cannot be taught.

Everyone without exception has to give offerings to the Gods, which is a small plate made of a special leaf and this tray/plate has to have offerings which always have to contain at least 3 different types of flowers, cookies, crackers (feeding the Gods), some drops of water or coffee, and anything you would just like to add in.

We saw cigarettes and as it were explained to us: “well after a meal one likes to smoke, right”
The offerings are places everywhere, you see them in front of a house, shops, on statue, around temples, in a car, on a car…. anywhere and everywhere.
It is said that 30% of a Balinese woman’s day time is spent on religious preparation such as making the offering, cleaning after the ceremony etc

There should be at least 3 times during the day when you give offerings to the Gods, 1 family counts as 1 person but still. I asked the driver what if you forget or you are bored of doing it and just quit this offering thing and I have to say his answer showed me he did not even understand my question… No exception I take it.

Some statues had dressed some didn’t and we did not know why, the answer is that those statues with clothes have spirit living in them and those standing, as they are, are just statues. There is no method or rule on how to identify living spirits in objects, if you say it’s there than it is there, that’s it.

Here rice comes in as religious element as rice has its God and rice is almost holy if not entirely that is why you cannot leave rice on your plate. (I don’t think the waiters were impressed with us leaving half the rice on our plates) The other reason is the hard work. Rice agriculture is no joke, it is hard, labor demanding job.

Bali is self sufficient with rice and with almost all of its food. The whole island felt like a big garden. When we went to the volcano there in the crater people were keeping kitchen garden size terraces and grew beans, chili, and other things.
Balinese like it tough; although I am convinced it is not a question of choice. They use no machines!!!! No tractor, no trenching – machine, no harvesting machines nothing just manpower, hours of work and a reaping-hook!!!

We learned to feel different about rice and food after all that. Most fields are so tiny our Western eyes would not even think of them as possible lands for gardening. Not to mention the irrigation issues… Land is ploughed by bulls.

Balinese have 2 options it seemed either stay with their family and farm their land or do something with tourism.
Back in a day when kingdoms were vital rulers of the territories caste was important. There are 4 castes; the highest 2 are is the Gods’/kings’ caste those born in these castes are kings and priests. Then ...

Margaret and Singapore snapshot

Margaret szombaton (okt. 10) erkezett, kimentunk ele a repterre, es persze mint mindig rossz terminalra mentunk, mert fapadossal jott, es mi ebbol fakadoan mentunk a fapados terminalhoz, de persze a terminal 1-be erkezett, igy kicsit elkestunk, de nem volt baj belole, szepen megvart minket.
Taxival bejottunk a varosba es pont a velunk szemben levo hotelban szallt meg, igy nem volt nagy nehezseg az idopont/talalka egyeztetes a hetvege hatralevo reszeben.

elso izben megmutattuk neki a lakast, keszitettem egy isteni mango shake-t, amit felhajtottunk es elindultunk a nagyvilagba. Indiai etteremben ettunk eloszor mondvan, hogy Margaret azt nagyon szereti, siker is volt.
Majd elmentunk az Orchard road-ra, ami az uber mega valtozata a Vaci utcanak. Margaret meg volt rokonyodve, hogy micsoda vilag marka orulet dul a varosban, tehat hogy sor all a Channel, Gocci, Luise Vittuone volt elott... mert ezek a boltok mig kisebbek es "butik" jelleguek meg New Yorkban is addig itt hangar nagysaguak, akar tobb emelettel, es meg igy is sorban kell elottuk allni.

Sebaj, majd ettunk egy csoki desszertet, kis kaveval es teaval. Vacsorara, pedig azt talaltuk ki, hogy borral lemegyunk az obolbe megnezzuk a szabadteri, vizen lebego szinpadon az ingyenes eloadast, elszopogatjuk a bort es elmegyunk egy etterembe valami konnyu vacsorat enni. Na ebbol az lett, hogy a pihenes e ket dolog elott elhuzodott, igy a bali tancos eloadast a szinpadon lekestuk, es a vacsora is irto keson volt. Minden esetre jot trecseltunk.

Vasarnap kiprobaltam az uj palacsintasutomet, Tefal es olyan de olyan jo, hogy meg az elso palacsintat se egettem el. Erre felboszulve ma athivtam par kollegat es baratot esti palacsinta partyra. Ez utan elmentunk a folyohoz es beultunk egy etteremben, ahol kora du "happy hour" ideje alatt olcso a sor, igy dumaltunk es soroztunk.

Vacsorafoglalasunk 5:30tol volt igy addig elmentunk a kinai negyedbe boklaszni, a kinai pagodat megnezni... es az etterem fele vezeto utata a metron tettuk meg, hogy azt is lassa. Persze mindentol el volt amulva, hogy szep, rendezett, egzotikus es a metro meg szuper modern.

A vacsora nagy sikert aratott, miutan egy japan etterembe mentunk, ahol adtak egy kis szemelyre szolo leveslevet es egy oriasi tutajban halat, rakot, kagylot es minden ehhez hasonlo herkentyuket es te fozocskezted ki az alapanyagokat a levesedben, amit alulrol forraltal.
Mint mindig isteni kaja volt de estere ugy elfaradtunk, hogy remeltem Mike hazavisz kezben, de neki se volt tobb energiaja. Meg elballagtunk fenykepezogepet venni Margaretnek.
Van itt egy olyan gep, hogy elol es a megszokott hatul is kijelzi a gep az aktualis kepet. Ha a fenykepezore nezel elorol nem is gondolnak, hogy egy lcd kijelzo be van a lencse melle epitve, mert ugyanugy nez ki, mint a gep szine, minden, de ha keszitesz kepet "atvaltozik" nagyon furfangos igy Margaret nem mondott neki nemet es megvette.
Utana mindenki ment a maga agya fele, en ha hiszitek ha nem szerintem este 9kor mar aludtam.... olyan merhetetlen faradsag volt rajtam, hogy hihetetlen

Ennek ellenere remek hetveget zartunk... :)

Where did we take the first pictures...
Hol is fenykepeztuk volna az elso kepeket...

Szolid 10 millio kaloria, de finom! Simply 10,000 calories but man you know it's good! :)





Zoolander...







Mike boven magyaraz, Mike is all about spreading the words! Singapore is awesome!




Margaret and I and the mighty Central Business District behind.
Margaret es en, mogottunk pedig a suru Kozponti Uzleti nagyed.






They are so similar. Nagyon hasonlitanak!


That's why we love Brewerkz Ezert szeretjuk a Brewerkz-et. :)


Margaret and I went to have our nails done on Sunday morning, cool girl thing to do, and our nails turned out nice!
Margaret es en vasarnap reggel elmentunk manikuroztetni a kormeinket, szuper csajos dolog volt, mar magamtol sosem megyek. :)







Beer is beer even in Singapore!
A sor az sor meg Szingapurban is!







Mike in the Japanese pot Master :) Mike a japan fozo bajnok!

Tioman pictures on the web, please open Picasa

Tioman kepek fent vannak a picasa blogon! :)

Oh Formula1 we "love" you all / Oh Forma 1 mi mind szeretunk

Today my usual 10 bus ride took me 55 min due to the new bus route... as they blocked half of the city center for the 2010 F1 race!!!!

anyway the finding of the day:

Florence and the Machine's "Dog Days Are Over"

and is you wonder where it is from... the trailer song for my beloved "Eat, Pray, Love" movie trailer!!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjay5vgIwt4

Oh hogy a Forma1, ma atlagos 10 perces busz utan 55 perce kerult, miutan a varos kozpont zome mara mar lezarasra kerult, hisz e het vegen rendezik a 2010es F1 futamot Szingapurban!

Sebaj a nap fenypontja, vegre megtudtam mi a kedvenc film elozetesem zeneje:

Florence and the Machine's "Dog Days Are Over"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjay5vgIwt4

Enjoy! Jo hallgatast!

Our Beautiful Tioman

Happened that our feet got itchy last week and as Friday the 10th was public holiday due to Muslim celebrations I could not keep myself on Singaporean soil, we decided to try our luck with Tioman…

Our problems began at the ticket counters: ‘Sorry Miss, we have no more tickets, lah’ and it repeatedly happened with the ferry tickets and the accommodation too. So Mike, 6 hours before departure, put his foot down… we canceled the trip, I was endlessly sad and disappointed as I really wanted to get away from the ‘daily grind.’
Mike promised that we would go the next week, which was this weekend.
We decided to bring some food with us as seemingly we always make the same mistake of not being prepared enough and then starve later. It wasn’t much what we brought - just some tomatoes, apples, grapefruit, cookies and water.

The weekend was an adventure indeed. I was only able to buy tickets for the direct bus to Tanjong Gemok which is the port city on the east cost of Malaysia, about 2-3h away from Johor Bahru which is the city on the Malaysian side of the Strait of Singapore.

So I thought to myself that one-way tickets are better than nothing, and we will find a way to get back I am sure. Of course Thursday night some very very important work had to be finished and it was threatening the journey greatly, I managed to finish it by 3am and our alarm was set for 5am.

We walked down to the bus pick up point where we set off at 6:30. Surprisingly, I realized again how crazy small Singapore is: within 30min we were getting off of the bus at the border checkpoint.
We managed to handle the Singaporean and Malay borders fairly quickly although my Hungarian citizenship seemed to be a ‘never heard of’ thing to the Malay officer but after double checking that I am eligible for a 90 day visa he even called me by my name - “Ms Imola welcome to Malaysia.” At 7:10am it felt like they are rolling a red carpet for me with such a polite greeting.

The bus ride was alright except that it started to pour heavily which wasn’t the best sign ever but my local ‘weather forecasting skills’ which I have developed over the past 2 years have trained me to be an optimist about rain because usually the next day is bright sunshine and great tropical weather, and it is almost guaranteed.
We weren’t able to get a ticket for the 1st ferry from Mersing, so we had to go one more stop (30min extra) to the 2nd ferry terminal from where at 12:30 we left on a boat to Tioman.

We were told that the boat ride will be 2 hours and indeed it was long. Learning from my last bout of seasickness in Thailand, I took a motion sickness pill which made me fall asleep within 15 min. It should be called knock-you-out pill???
After arrival our first thing was to look for a bungalow as we did not book any accommodation knowing that it is plentiful and we were not wrong. We decided to stay at the 2nd place we found, the Double Ace.

It was a bit up a hill from the beach, a mere 2 min walk, the bungalow was ok, a big bed, balcony, palm trees around, fan and mosquito net and an ensuite toilet, where you were able to have hot shower during daytime as the sun was warming the water in the water containers. We paid 50RM per night – which is about 24 SGD / 18US.
We were unable to withdraw money at the ferry terminal (no ATM) but we figured we could take care of it on Tioman, we had about a 100-130 SGD on us.

Yes, but when we asked around they told us that there is only 1 bank on the island, on another beach which is 40min from where we were and it closes Friday at 4pm and opens next Monday. Oh and to feel even better the ATM shuts down at 4pm too, but the girl made us sure to know – oh that machine never accepts any cards… and there is no money exchange at all!!!!

Wow that was not a fun moment for us, we had about 10 Ringgit after the ferry ticket purchase and that didn’t seem like it would last for another 2 days, or 2.5…
We rented 2 bikes with that money and we did an Olympic cycling to Tekek (the only beach with a bank). The bank was still open, so was the ATM, but as it had been said, sure enough it did not accept our visa card, and after waiting a long time in the bank with plenty of noisy, misbehaving local parents and kids, the bank turned out to be unable to connect to “the world” and give us money.

Oh, meanwhile I went for a ride to see what is around and I found out that there is an old Malay lady who is dealing in black money exchange as a side business while selling fried rice over the counter for 3 ringgit (less than one USD)
I would like to mention that it is around 5pm and we haven’t had anything else to eat, just apples and cookies, since 6:30am… and we had to accept the fact yes we hadn’t brought enough food, again.

Mike cycled back to our beach to get all our Singaporean cash which we were able to change to 330RM! Bungalow was 100RM so we had 230 after all, which is ok we thought. (100 SG – 90US)

We immediately got some beers and local peanuts and sat down to chill out and calm down … we were gazing around looking at locals and wondering… “is it true, they live like this, really this is their life…?” Sure enough it is/was. Most of the little houses are hardly any bigger or stronger than our weekend bungalow.
Kids riding motorbikes at age 7-8, ladies are all wearing scarves around their heads, you could see their faces but still on a 30degrees/ 85+F tropical, humid island did not strike me to be comfortable for scarves, but they must obey their religion.

Kids are playing in the dust…life is so simple for those on that island that they hardly did any agriculture either, they just live off the tourists coming to Tioman, which is a very slim target audience at the end of the day.

We headed back to ABC beach and looked around. We were amazed to see that from our window we could see the South China Sea, there was a huge mango tree in front of the balcony, Jackfruit on the left, and we heard absolutely nothing but nature.

Maybe one of the biggest surprises was the mute quietness. Absolutely no noise but a few birds, we realized how noisy our life is in Singapore, the horns, the constant construction, cars, buses….. just NOISY. But here, only birds and bugs.

We looked for some dinner which was long overdue and we ended up at a great little restaurant serving the best cheese omelets ever, which I did not fail to order every single day! : ) 4 times to be exact.

We strolled up and down the beach and turned in early, given the fact that there is not much to do in the evenings. We were tempted by snorkeling day trips but quickly we realized that we just don’t have cash for it as we were on a fixed budget.

The next day we woke up after twelve hours of sleep, from 10pm till 10am, we were so well rested we did not want to believe it. The bed itself played a key role, as the new mattresses were very comfy. Also it was quiet, at night a tiny bit chilled, no mosquitoes whatsoever, so 12h sleep, no problem.

We had a great brunch at the Cheese omelet place and went to rent masks for snorkeling; from Borneo we had the snorkels.
Looking at the map and knowing that we have to take care of our own entertainment we decided to go for a jungle walk and occasionally we will stop to snorkel along the way.
We headed north where we knew we could reach ‘Monkey Bay’ and Salang beach (eventually). After the first section of the jungle trek we ended up on this beach which was sooooooooooooo crazy beautiful I could not hold myself and jumped right into the water. It was clear, warm and around the jetty there were about 500,000 mini fish. Oh it was just paradise.
We set off again walking more, that part of the jungle walk was really long, and had climbs and steep slopes, it took us 45 min~1 hour to reach another bay which we did not know what it was but soon enough we did.

The bay being perfect, having only 6 other people on it apart from us, Mike and I decided to snorkel again, and as we are setting my backpack down on the sand, a male monkey came out from the jungle. The male was going for my backpack, Mike was closer and us being puzzled by the monkey’s brave approach we were guessing that the little nasty animal wants to steal our bag.

When he got closer than we liked, Mike started to scare him away which was apparently even worse because the animal got really aggressive and was clearly showing “Dude, I am a monkey, I want your bag pronto and I do not fear to bite your white human arm if you dare to stop me”
So Mike did try to “fight” him off, but the nasty animal just grabbed my bag and disappeared in the jungle with it. Holy s*** the money stole the bag!!!!!!!!
The camera fall out half way but still, it was a big challenge to get it back, because the money went up on a tree ready to jump on Mike if he comes to pick it up. I found a huge bamboo stick which we used to distract our attacker and Mike was able to get the bag back. Later we learned, that we were not careful enough to double check the contents of the bag and Mike’s sunglasses were the price for that.

The snorkeling otherwise great we saw the biggest shell ever, it was probably a meter /yard long.
I collected a lot of shells as I have a forever eager shell collecting hobby and then we decided to give up on Salang beach but go with the safe option and head back to ABC beach.
You do not want to find yourself in the dark in the jungle.
As we were hiking in the jungle we heard a noise and Mike guessing it is wild boar, I said it is a bird and then none of us was right it was a monkey “singing”.

This one did not attack us, we had enough of monkey aggression for the day, the male back on the beach want even big, but his teeth and of course immediately when you see yourself opposed to such a creature you run your previous biology class vs National Geography knowledge to know you do not want his bite if it is possible.
The other serious consideration for us was that we did not see a single hospital or doctor’s office anywhere, we are still wondering how women give birth…? (old fashion or something) (and now I think of my friend back in SG where they told her last week that her baby birth next month will cost her 17,000SG)

We made it back just fine and had a great dinner, again with cheese omelets and beer. : ) Before the dinner we sat down at the only one bar where accidentally we met 2 Hungarians who came from Australia to have a little holiday as their visa requires them to leave in every 6 months.

It was an experience indeed, ‘Boli’ (his nickname) was a modern day nomad, dreadlocks and suntan.
He was 45 but lives like a young 20, he lives to travel, as we learned over the night he visited and then we mean visited (spent a month-3 months in a country) all Europe, Turkey, went to India on land, lived in India for 6 months, Tenerife, Morocco, he was swimming in rivers with crocodiles, he was petting dingos at the Ayers Rock in Australia, he ate nun’s donation in Spain… you name it he saw it. He want to the US too and he is a drummer of a quite known Hungarian “world music” band.
Some called it “Shaman punk” : )

He has a house in Hungary but as he does not really have a family he left years ago and never really returned. His stories were amazing, he is the type who likes to live it rough… does not need much he works on farms or anything and that money is enough for him for weeks. He has been living in Australia for over 1.5 years, he says that he loves it and getting a van there is very easy which leaves plenty of freedom to go anywhere he just wants to.

He did the El Camino the same way, one day he decided to get on the road and walk; the El Camino is a nearly 1000km long pilgrimage in Northern Spain.
He is invited by many people on his journeies, somehow everybody seems to care and share as little as a dinner, a room or just a chat with him. He was an interesting person to talk to, somebody who really turned his back on the average life, having a home and warm food on the table, but in return he really have seen half of the world in depth we just wish to.

Today, Sunday morning we had a little hesitation what to do as we recognized Mike’s glasses absence but Mike had the final word for it so we did not return to Monkey bay to look for them, I would have gone if it would have been my glasses, but I guess we are different that way. Instead we had a long swimming with the fishy fish and finished the day nicely.
Our boat left at 1pm and we were lucky to be offered a bus ride back from the driver on the way here on Friday. So as we arrived back the driver was already waiting for us and now, we are on the bus, trying to make our way back on the crowded Sunday night roads.
Pictures will come shortly...