Tag Archives: Rest

Day 262 – Celebrating the weekend

All together at the restaurant

All together at the restaurant

Flo and I finished our last administrative tasks today as Friday and thus the weekend was coming up. The most important information we got was that Touratech Dubai does not stock any tires in Rocinante’s size. So we either have to find tires somewhere else in Dubai or we have to make our current ones last until Turkey. We’ll keep you updated on this.

Other than that, we wrote blog entries, emails, postcards and updated trip data. Once Lina and Michael were back, the weekend celebration could begin. So we went out for dinner to a Turkish place and gorged ourselves on Fattush salad, a mixed mazza plate with the biggest bread I have ever seen, grape rolls filled with rice and some grilled meat for the guys.

In the end, we all had to roll out of the restaurant and still took some take away with us.

Day 173 – Stats 105 Malaysia

We have a spare Malaysia flag sticker ... any takers?

We have a spare Malaysia flag sticker … any takers?

We did … NOTHING! Well, other than lounging all day we only crawled out of our palace to have breakfast and dinner with our lovely hosts Thomas and Dui. Thus, room for another (more timely) stat post!

We have already shared our thoughts about Malaysia at length in previous posts. Therefore, just some brief observations.

What made Malaysia great for us were the amazing people we met along the way. We got free accommodation, workshop space and heaps of food from a bunch of generous peoples. Special thanks once more to Sonja and her family, Sunny, Tony, BK and of course Jonathan.

Unfortunately, we did not really find access to the country beyond that. Maybe we will come back some day, with a fresher mind and also go exploring further east. Just over 1000km feels like barely scratching the surface, now …

Country data #5: Malasia

Full screen version of the map

  • 1222 km traveled (1178 km of GPS tracked)
  • 6 travel days, 18 days total
  • $8.28 Average cost per night (7x room, 9x invitation)
  • 73.69l of standard fuel for $  48.89 (6 l / 100km)
  • ~$25.15 for food every day, always eating out with many invitations
  • ~$1.650 in total

All $ values are converted to NZD.

Day 118 – Overdue (Stats 103 Timor-Leste)

cc-by Nicolas Raymond

cc-by Nicolas Raymond

A lot of little things to do accumulate when we are travelling. Most of the time, we do not get through all of them in our evening downtime. Or the required facilities are not around (WiFi, Laundries etc). So the little scratches, tears and aches accumulate, until it is time to just not move, rest, watch a movie and get through our homework.

We stayed in our Probbolingo hotel for one more day. They had WiFi, a good warung across the street and bug-free beds (I murdered a lone bedbug, but I feel that we have brought that with us).

We got our mid-term plans for Indonesia to Malaysia shipping and a visit to my dad in Thailand over Christmas / New Year’s sorted out in concept. There is even time to finally do the Timor-Leste stats post. So here we go. Continue reading →

Day 101 – A day in Sumbawa Besar

We didn’t make a lot of plans for today just one which was to get up early and visit the market. The day was quite the burner so during breakfast we broke our first sweat. It didn’t help much that we had fried rice and egg omelettes.

People, motorbikes, wares, all zipping around

People, motorbikes, wares, all zipping around

Afterwards, walking to the market was quite the trial. The market itself is gigantic, under a roof and a complete maze to me. I followed Flo around first through the fruit and vege section and then through the clothes section. In between there was a stretch with fish and chicken which I tried to pass quickly only to find that I had entered the innards section. Ewww…the only stall with sweets was right in the middle so I had to pass on those as well.

Within a short amount of time, we were overwhelmed and ready to leave. Not without buying more, strange looking fruits though.

On the way back, we had to take breaks in the shade as the sun was just scorching us. Luckily, our room is air conditioned. It was then that we decided to take a rest day to replenish our batteries. For the rest of the day, we lounged around our room, watching episodes of a series and listening to an audiobook. Despite thinking we’re having a rest day at a beach, we ended up taking it in a city. Flo and I are simply city people and we enjoyed it muchly to walk around one corner to top up our phone credit and around another corner to great street food. Sumbawa Besar is super convenient for us, as there is even a laundry service on the opposite side of our hotel. All our clothes now smell like flowers which hasn’t happened in a while.

Day 83 – The shortest post

Rocinante and feet

Chilling before the hike

Well, this post is actually written ‘tomorrow’, sitting on the porch of our Pousada and written on our phone instead of the surface.

Today’s motto was rest and prepare. Late night rugby meant that we were keen to sleep in and take it slow. A vague plan to go up the hill to Dare to visit the cafe and museum but never eventuated.

Most of the activity today was about investigating how we could go about climbing Tatamailau (Mount Ramelau) and then preparing for it. It is pretty remote, so we wanted to take some things with us just in case. Most importantly, we needed to break down some of our fresh $20 notes. Even if you can buy stuff, most places will not have more than $1-3 in change to hand out. Plus, Rocinante needed to be fueled up for the 120km journey.

The rest was sleeping, blogging, watching “Monster University” and reading. I picked up some public domain works for the Kindle in Darwin and am now enjoying Mark Twain’s “The Innocents Abroad” about his pilgramage boat trip to the Holy Land. Apart from being hilariously funny, I am blown away how relevant and current the book still is for the serious traveller. Go check it out if you are looking for some light reading, it is out there for free!

That is it for today, really 😉