Category Archives: Personal

Day 4 – Old friends in new places

Our original plan was to leave for Italy today but when yesterday turned out to be…substandard, we decided to stay the whole day at Christine’s place to relax and catch up with one of our oldest friends. Luckily, Christine, Torsten and their little one were able to host us longer than they had expected. J

ready for second breakfast?

The day started off with Flo making pancakes for everyone (such a treat!) and they were devoured in record time. To be fair, we haven’t had enough sleep as the catching up part started yesterday evening which stretched into the night and then our two rascals were awake from 5.50am onwards when the Agent of Entropy crashed into the wooden train set with gusto and woke us up with a start. The best thing to do to remedy some of the effects of a night with not enough hours of shut-eye was to immediately plan our second breakfast. At 8pm, Flo, Christine and the Agent of Entropy left for the bakery to buy more baked goods for our indulging shenanigans.

Second breakfast started around 9.20am and after so much yummy food we all agreed to go on a walk before taking advantage of the more relaxed Swiss Corona rules and eat out for lunch. As it is with kids though, it took forever to get three of them ready to leave so by the time we were outside we had about 40 minutes left before the aforementioned kids would demand lunch. -.-

Our walk was postponed until after even more food and we headed straight to the restaurant in the next village up. Neither Christine nor Torsten had been there before so it was nice to explore something new with our hosts. This part (or maybe many parts) of Switzerland are very rural so we passed sheep and chickens and a picturesque fountain on the way. All three kids absolutely loved it.

Ohhh, Pizza Batman!

The restauarant…what can I say?…it’s been almost a year since we went out for food. It was a celebration in itself to be able to do this again. Also, the food was delicious, the place kid-friendly (Number 3 had a Pizza Batman and a scoopf of mango ice cream) and our outside seating had just the right combination of sunshine and shade.

On the way back, we then had to hurry to be home in time to get the kids to bed for their midday nap. Well, two out of three kids had to nap. We still took the scenic route home with time for cows, a tractor and all things Swiss. It was a bit of a task to get the kids to calm down enough to sleep but once the Agent of Entropy slept there even was time to play a boardgame with Number 3.

In the late afternoon we went to the playground where much fun was had.

Back home we opted for more food followed vy a much earlier bedtime. J Tomorrow, we’ll head off to Italy…with a detour (back to Germany o.ô) to refresh our rapid Covid tests first.

Day 304 – Blingdenstone

So we did get to see a balloon even if it was not in the air

So we did get to see a balloon even if it was not in the air

Alright, enough about hanging out, it was time to get back on our feet for a bit. Not enough mind you to get up at 6 am to watch the balloons go up over the valley, but enough to set out on a day trip after a good breakfast.

We decided on one of the five underground cities of the area in D@#T. It was a short ride of about 35 km away and we were there by 11 am. The entrance fee was on the hefty side, at least for our tiny remaining budget, with $25 for the two of us. The general consensus is that these underground cities were used by the christian inhabitants of the land to evade several waves of invaders and/ or ethnic cleansing from about 800 AD into the 13th century.

This is the official way...try not to get claustrophobic

This is the official way…try not to get claustrophobic

Going down past several warning sings was an eerie experience. The access tunnels were all extremely narrow and low. The one to the deepest accessible point was probably 50 m long with three separate massive round stone doors that could be used to seal the inhabitants in. The guides had to shout up the corridor when they were leading a group through, since it would have been way to confined for two groups to pass. It was an impressive experience, but we were definitively happy to see the light of day again.

It took us a bit of a longer way back to explore some of the back roads. We had a brief look at an old monastery built into the cliff-side before moving on to find a spot to have our lunch. The perfect spot appeared not soon after in form of a picnic area at a reservoir lake about 20 km from Göreme.

We popped back to the campground for a second to pick up the map of the area and hit the road one more time. We just had enough energy left to have a proper look at one of the valleys that make Cappadocia so famous. This particular one is interchangeably called fairy chimneys or love valley, for obvious reasons.

A whole fairy army must live here ...

A whole fairy army must live here …

There was even enough time left that afternoon to finish up with a bunch of chores. All in all, it feels like we have rested enough to tackle the last stretch of our journey. The closer we get to Istanbul, the harder it becomes for us to motivate ourselves to still “do it”. I must be honest, right now, a lot of the times I would rater spend an afternoon with my favorite video game or have a BBQ with friends than to get on the bike to see another ruin, beach or city. We are going through the motions, waiting on inspiration as we go … but home continues to creep up on us.

Day 142 – The Last Hop or Eurasia, here we come!

Don't like handing over my bike ...

Don’t like handing over my bike …

The whole shipping our bike on a passenger ferry made us nervous. There was no guaranty that it would work and just last week, a traveller we know (going from London to NZ) was refused because his bike was too big to fit through the door and now he’s stuck in Kuala Lumpur with no way across to Sumatra.

Thus, our night was short. Flo was up from 2am, I joined at 5am. Mr Ade called again at 7am to make sure that we had “the money” and we felt as if we were in a bad mafia movie. We had “the money” and now we were going to “the harbour” with it to meet “our fixer”. The wire anyone?

We arrived at the ferry terminal at 8am which was an hour earlier than Mr Ade told us to be there. He, however, was there already and started the procedure right away. Our luggage was carried onto the pier (with now ferry in sight there yet) and then, one of the staff insisted on driving Rocinante onto the pier. Flo would have preferred to drive our bike himself but he wasn’t allowed.

The Agent, hard at work with his other clients ...

The Agent, hard at work with his other clients …

We had a basic breakfast in the waiting area before being picked up by Mr Ade for some special bule treatment. Got our passenger ferry tickets and then had our passports stamped as proof that we left Indonesia way before anyone else. We then proceeded to be the first ones on the ferry. One of the staff took us to the storage to show us all our luggage was on board but Rocinante had to remain on the pier until all passengers had boarded.

The ferry was one of the high speed kind but it smelled pretty badly. Fish, urine and the sight of cockroaches mingled for the next two hours while we waited for everyone else to come on board. Since we were leaving one country and entering a new one, everyone had to go through customs to have their passports checked and stamped which takes forever. Suddenly, we heard commotion from the hallway; Rocinante was being pulled, heaved and dragged onto the boat. I felt much relief when the bike finally was on the same boat as us.

Leaving Tanjungbalai, everyone was served a lunch packet. It contained a pile of plain rice and a piece of fish. Flo had “luck” and a whole fish’s head in his one.

safety what?

safety what?

The ferry ride was very long. And horrible. Mostly because some of the hawkers had obviously paid so that they could use the announcement system but it was broken and emitted a high-pitched electronic sound for an hour or so which made my head nearly explode. I felt really sick. It got to the point where Flo and I put toilet paper into our ears because we had no access to any other form of earplugs.

We were so happy when we arrived in Port Klang. Just going into the port, you could see how different Malaysia would be to Indonesia. What an enormous, industrial-sized harbour! Wow. On the Malaysian side of customs, we had to queue shortly, leave our fingerprints and declare our goods. As soon as we were through, Mr Ong found us to deal with the Malaysian side of shipping our bike across. This mostly included leaving our carnet de passage with a customs officer and going to pay Mr Ong his share. He wanted another RM350 which is RM150 more than we were told. Again, we had no other choice than to pay. we were “graciously” given a discount of RM50. At least we got a receipt for this fee…

We had to stay back ... safety and all ... yeah right.

We had to stay back … safety and all … yeah right.

Then we were allowed access to Rocinante. The customs officer checked the engine number and other things before stamping it. Our luggage still had to be x-rayed. Finally, we were at the point when we strapped everything back to the bike and left the harbour. It was getting late and it was another 50km to our bed.

Riding out of the harbour, we fell in love with Malaysian roads. Great roads. Big roads. Almost like the autobahn. Functioning traffic lights. No honking. No one trying to kill us. Motorbikes are not only allowed on the motorway, they get their own on-ramp so they can bypass the toll station. Motorbikes can use the motorway for free. It all looked so great. Sun was slowly setting when we made our way into Kuala Lumpur. What a pretty city!

Getting darker, but everyting is nicely illuminated.

Getting darker, but everyting is nicely illuminated.

And then we had to face the difficulties of a life without a proper SIM card yet. Our GPS didn’t know Sonja’s address. Without SIM card, we couldn’t google it and instead had to ask for directions on the way there. Took a wrong turn and ended up back on the motorway. *sigh* It was dark when we arrived at the gated community. Security asked for our swipe card…which we didn’t have. Without a SIM card, we couldn’t even call Sonja’s neighbour who had all our access keys. *sigh again* In the end, one of the guards lend us a phone so we could call and while I waited, Flo got accompanied to a phone shop to remedy our “no SIM card” plight once and for all.

Barely human anymore, we entered Sonja’s flat at 9pm. Tired, exhausted and filthy as.

If everything goes according to plan, this was the last shipping we had to do. We now have made our way from New Zealand onto the Eurasian continent. From here on out, we are crossing land borders. HELLO EURASIA! *wohooo*

Day 128 – Jakarta

Thanks guys - seems we were a bit too early for you ...

Thanks guys – seems we were a bit too early for you …

It is 150km from Bandung to Jakarta. Everyone, including Andy in Jogja, warned us about the traffic in Jakarta. Or maybe rather the traffic to Jakarta. So we had two options starting this morning: Make it onto the fast roads or crawl along to Bogor and then take a train into the city center.

The sticker shop (mangele.com) was still closed so we took a photo in front of the shop instead of showing the owner our bike. And off we went.

Getting onto the “fast roads” worked very well…to my surprise. We did about 50km before we were stopped by a maintenance crew. They were very worried about us but making us follow their car on the shoulder of the road was actually dangerous. They despaired a bit when they realized that the next exit would be twenty to fifty kilometres further down the road. So they waved us onto a resting area where they had a brief chat with a police guy who seemed totally unconcerned. After another 5km of following them, they gave up and waved us back onto the actual road.

big and small, at the mall

big and small, at the mall

Thus, we made the 150km in about 1 ½ hours which is record time and speed for Indonesia. 2km before our exit in the center of Jakarta, we got stopped again, this time by a police car. The policeman was very friendly and took many photos (including selfies) with us before escorting us off to our exit. From there it was only a short hop to the Kuningan City Mall where vfs global has its office. Jakarta turned out to be entirely different from what I expected. The inner city looks like any big western city as well with glass towers and massive high rises. The traffic is dense but not worse than in a crowded German city. The red traffic lights were probably the most annoying thing because we had to stop in the sun and were fried but everyone stuck to the road rules more or less.

Kuningan City Mall even had a security check before you could enter, probably because it was stuffed with fancy boutique shops such as Armani, Boss and the like. After finding a parking spot dedicated for motorcycles over 500cc (wtf? That’s very specific), we made our way in and across to get to the lifts. In the far end corner was a motorcycle shop with a Harley Davidson on display. Just saying.

The place to pick up our passports

The place to pick up our passports

Up on the third floor, we walked into the vfs office just to be promptly sent out again to store all of our stuff. I guess jackets and helmets and a tank bag are not essential for picking up your passport. After that, it was a breeze: Walk in, get a number, be the only person who wants to speak with the New Zealand representative, say “we want to pick up our passport”, get a knowing look from the lady and two envelops with our passports. A quick check to see it is A. the correct visa and B. all your data is correct and off we went.

With that success, we went to explore the mall and get something to eat. The upper level was a food court where all kinds of food were sold so I had a “home-y” food day. I ordered mashed potatoes and had an éclair filled with chocolate cream for dessert. Yum, yum yum.

Flo and I needed the time while eating to come up with a new plan. Our plan had finished with “pick up our passports” and now it was 1pm, we were in Jakarta and had nothing more to do. Quickly it became clear that we wanted to make use of our good fortune, stay in the city and see a bit of it. Found a very nice looking backpacker hostel online which we booked even if it was slightly out of our price range because in the good old hostel tradition, it had a social area with a pool table. We could do with a bit of socializing today.

Six degrees, the hostel, was all that we wanted. Checked in at 14.05pm and went out pretty much immediately afterwards. Well, not quite true, I had a quick cuddle with Nemo, the hostel cat. Probably the biggest and fluffiest cat I have met in Indonesia so far.

Giant Monas (a flame on to of a pillar). The flame is 35kg of leaf gold and the pillar is made from marble

Giant Monas (a flame on to of a pillar). The flame is 35kg of leaf gold and the pillar is made from marble