It was raining that day so I just bought a new pair of sunglasses, had dinner and went to bed. I also wasn’t feeling well after a few days of illness on the Gili’s so didn’t feel up to celebrating my last day.

The next day I went to the airport and got surprised by quite a hefty departure tax, payable only in cash of course. I didn’t have any cash left so that was awkward… But I figured it out and got onboard that flight in the end.

One of my favourite places in the world is to be above the clouds and that’s why I love the window seat on an airplane. Clouds are beautiful! How lucky are we to get to see these amazing things from above?! I feel like the luckiest person in the world when I see it.

Landed in Bangkok’s Don Mueng airport that afternoon and jumped straight onto a bus and then the subway to the train station. There I bought myself a ticket to Chiang Mai (790B/£18)- time to explore northern Thailand!

I’d never been on a Thai train before but I was impressed. It was the night train, we left at 6pm and it was going to take 14 hours, but the seats are spacious and I got seated with 3 funny Dutch guys. We got some beers and later realised the restaurant carriage turns into a disco at night! A disco full of drunken backpackers dancing to Gangnam Style.
Then they turned our seats into beds so we slept comfortably throughout the whole night while the train rocked us into sweet dreams.

At 9am we arrived in Chiang Mai and we’re staying in a cute hotel called Libra Guesthouse. For 250B (£6) I get my own room in front of the garden full of hammocks and so far I’m getting nice vibes from this city so might be staying a while.

My friend and ex-roomy Eleonora makes really cool jewellery and I got to be the model for her collections – here are some photos from the 2013 spring/summer lookbook.

DALL’ANTONIA JEWELLERY

I’ve arrived in another paradise! I’m on Gili Air!

3 tiny islands just off the coast of Lombok. No motorised vehicles, just beach, food and happy relaxed people.

Gili Trawangan is known as the party island while Gili Meno is the quiet one with almost nothing to do, and Gili Air is a perfect blend between the two – a perfect mix between having something to do and having nothing to do.

On the east side of the island there are loads of bungalows and restaurants, all tastefully designed to blend in with the surroundings. You can walk around the island in about an hour and on the west side there is pretty much nothing, just white sand beaches.

I was walking around when I saw a storm closing in. Such a beautiful sight when it comes in over the sea… I got stuck in the pouring rain so ran into the nearest bar which turned out to be a psycadelic bar! I was happy with just a beer and the rain stopped after half a bottle and I got out of space and back into paradise on my beach walk.

I soon found an empty spot on the beach to have a little swim and a nap, with a view of the thunderstorm over Lombok to my left, and Bali’s volcano to my right.
Paradise.

The village itself is tiny and it’s not hard to find a good place to stay. We chose the family run guesthouse Kuta Bay Homestay which is run by the American/Indonesian couple Susi & Tom. It’s only been open since last year and they are still working on making it perfect so our bedroom for 3 was a bit overpriced at 180,000R/night (£12) as the toilet was leaking and one person had to sleep without a mosquito net. But it was a nice place with a good location nontheless.

Waiting for busses leaving Bali.

Buffalos on Kuta Bay beach.

There are plenty of beautiful beaches to choose from around Kuta but our favourite was a short drive West, an empty beach called Mawun beach. Barely any people there, appart from some kids and fishermen, and it’s fun to play in the big waves in the perfectly turqouise water. We’d stay here until sunset, playing football with the kids or collecting beautiful shells and that’s the epitome of a good life.

“Cous-cous” sand.

The cafe Ashtari with the most stunning view over Kuta Bay and the most amazing chocolate cakes!

The most gorgeous beach Mawun.

The beaches are full of pretty shells and one of my favourite past times is to pick them all.

A bit further West of Kuta is Mawi beach, yet another gorgeous beach popular with surfers and one of my favourites.

Sunset over Mawun beach.

It wasn’t easy to leave the amazing scenery behind but after 5 days, and with only a week left on my visa, I felt it was time to move on so I arranged for a car to take me to Senggigi on the West coast. This is where I am now and I’ve found the cutest little guesthouse called Sonya’s for £7/night. I went straight for the beach to have a swim, they’re nowhere near the same level as Kuta’s beaches, but at least the sunsets are better. So does everyone else seem to think too as the beach filled up pretty quickly with people wanting to see the sun setting over Bali’s volcano Gunung Agung.

Sunset over Bali’s mount Agung viewed from Senggigi.

We were put on a local bus full of curious locals and driven to Denpassar which was going to take a good few hours. You could smoke on the bus though so it was ok. After being stuck in traffic for way too long we arrived – somewhere in the middle of nowhere. It was not Denpassar, it was not anywhere, just a bus station on an empty field. So we were forced to take a taxi as it was the only option out of there. Typical.

But by now we were 8 people travelling together and the one good thing the overpriced taxi did for us, was to take us to one of Ubud’s best guesthouses – Kabera Bungalows.
For 100,000R (£7) per night per double room we couldn’t complain. It’s located on a quiet alleyway just off Monkey Forest Road – the most central road in Ubud. The rooms were massive and all came with their own veranda or balcony facing the green garden. A tasty breakfast was included and the family running the place was incredibly sweet and helpful.

We had no real plan as to how long we all wanted to stay in Ubud or on Bali but after our adventures on Java we could all agree that we needed some relaxtime. So we ended up staying for an entire week in Ubud alone! It’s the kind of place where you just stay. And stay. And stay. I had never seen such a beautiful place and the more I saw of it, and the island, the more I liked it.

I went exploring the city, amazed at the lush greenery, all the flowers, the Hindu/Balinese decorations, the architecture, the cafes, the restaurants, the art… every little alleyway has something cool to explore! And it caters to everyone from the budget backpackers to the flashy tourists with money to spend. Everyone except the party people, which suited us just fine.

One of the many cute cafes around Ubud.

I went down one alleyway in the middle of Ubud and found a river with a hidden temple.

All of Ubud is full of art and artists.

All the Ubud houses and their impressive gates.

After the fairly disappointing food on Java I was happy to finally gulp down some amazing dishes!

Elephant Cave (Goah Gaja)

One day me and my English friend decided to visit the Elephant Cave just outside of town. It took us an hour to walk there and it was well worth the walk – the cave temple itself was cool but it was the surroundings that impressed us the most. There are small rice fields where you can have a friendly chat with the farmers, and if you walk further into the jungle you’ll find a waterfall, some temples and the most serene river. Most people skip the river as it’s a bit of a trek but I found it to be the most peaceful place I’ve ever been to and incredibly beautiful.

Could you find a more peaceful place to take your son fishing?!

Monkey Forest

In the centre of Ubud is the Monkey sanctuary, a forest with temples and monkeys. It’s full of tourists but still a nice place to visit. You can feed the monkeys with corn and they will climb all over you to get their hands on your food. Quite funny, unless you’re scared of monkeys like me…

On a couple of occations we rented motorbikes and went on some roadtrips to the lakes up north. I love riding bikes so this was the highlight for me, and there is so much to see!
We found beautiful old temples, swam in waterfalls, walked on the rice fields, went to illegal cockfights (don’t go, it’s horrible), found view points from where you can see the lakes and the volcanoes, and it’s hard to miss any kind of temple ceremonies along the way as there seem to be something to celebrate everyday.

I could easily have stayed on Bali for much longer but finally, as a group down to 3 people, we decided to change island and head to Lombok.

And so it has begun. The feeling I was waiting for. The feeling that actually arrived much later than I anticipated. I’ve started to miss home.

Spring is arriving in Europe and it’s truly the best time of the year. After a winter that lasts for way too long it is like everything and everyone are reborn – the colours are returning and so are the birds and sun and the smiles on people’s faces. The streets will soon be full of summer parties and the parks will be full of sunbathers.

Pure magic.

But travelling is addictive and it’s difficult enough to decide which country to head to next, let alone deciding on a return date home.

I’m on Bali now, Lombok from tomorrow, and my Indonesian visa runs out in 2 weeks so I need to book a flight out of here. I can’t decide – too many options. My heart says Philippines but I’ve always wanted to celebrate Vesak which falls on the 24th of May (the Buddhist new year) in a Buddhist country…

I want to be home before the end of the summer but I also want to visit northern Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines and Shanghai! Maybe I should simply take a break from the Asian trip - go back home and work over the summer, and then head back to Asia later in the year?

Too many options makes the heart restless.

It’s only a few hours east of Bromo but we missed the local transport from Probolinggo which only leaves in the morning so we were forced to pay for a van from a tourist office. We refused to book a whole package which would include a hotel and the tour to the Ijen krater as we were hoping we’d be able to do it all ourselves for cheaper. Only problem is, Ijen is not such a popular tourist spot that you’ll have plenty of choises which we learned when we arrived in the small village Sempol… known for all its coffee plantations and coffee roasting. The only hotel there was full but we still managed to find a free room in a homestay for £3 each which was good enough.

Then we learned that trekking up to the Ijen krater is near impossible if you don’t go on a tour as Sempol is the closest to Ijen you can sleep, and that’s still an hour drive away. You could hitch hike I guess but then you wouldn’t make it for sunrise. So we were forced to pay for a van anyway and we decided to include the transport to Bali afterwards too to simplify things. We paid 200,000 ruphias for all this (£13).

At 3am we met the group back at the hotel, had a strong freshly ground Arabica coffee, and then we headed off into the jungle towards the volcanoes!
The car drops you off at the bottom of the mountain and from there you trek up on your own which takes an hour if you walk fast. It’s steep but easy and you have the views of the surrounding volcanoes around you and once in a while you’ll pass the sulfur mining workers who started working much earlier in the morning.

These brave men work in the sulfur mine down in the Ijen krater and are happy to have their photos taken in exchange for a cigarette, a cookie or some money. They have one of the hardest and most dangerous jobs in the world – right in the middle of the poisonous gasses they hack off bits of sulfur which they then carry all the way up the crater and onwards all the way down the mountain. It’s a several kilometers long trek and the loads, which they carry on their backs, can weigh up to 100kg! They get paid depending on the amount of sulfur they carry: 1kg= 600 ruphias= £0.04 which means not more than a few quid a day… The sulfur is then used for soaps, makeup or bleaching sugar and many other very important things.

Most people are happy to stop their trek at the top of the krater but a few decide to descent into it as well, including myself. We were lucky with the weather and wind so could do so fairly easily. If it’s very windy the sulfur gases would prevent you from climbing down.

The minor’s office – right in the gasses which is a mix of highly concentrated hydrogen sulphide and sulphur dioxide gases.
Me and a couple other guys went up close to watch them work when the wind changed and we got stuck in the smoke cloud… not a good situation to be in and very scary. It hurt so bad to breath, it hurt so bad to have your eyes open! Besides, you couldn’t see anything for the smoke so I didn’t know what direction to run. I thought I was going to die, or pass out and fall into the acid lake. Thankfully a miner called out for us and guided us out of the smoke. It’s hard to think these guys go through this every day…

The Ijen krater also contains the world’s largest acidic lake, with a pH value similar to battery acid. It can break down clothes and even metals. It’s got a perfectly turquoise colour and is almost a kilometer wide, it fits beautifully next to the yellow sulfur mine but absolutely nothing can live in this dangerous water.

As the gases from the mine can quickly break down a camera I was pretty keen to get out of the krater shortly after we got stuck in the smoke cloud. Together with the miners I climbed the steep rocky path to the top.

When I got back up at the top I felt happy that I only had to do that once… It’s difficult to think that these miners do this several times a day, for several years. Most of them die early due to various health problems and 75 workers has died here in the last 40 years after being overpowerd by fumes. It’s a dangerous job but they say it pays more than any other work. Sad but true.

Once the miners reach the top of the krater rim with the heavy loads of sulfur on their backs, the 3km long walk down the mountain begins.

To visit the Ijen krater is an amazing experience which I’d encourage anyone travelling to Java not to miss. It’s like being on another planet where everything can kill you. The beauty of the yellow sulfur, the white smoke cloud rising towards the sky, the warm turquoise water, the stunning views from the top of the mountain. All a devil in disguise, ready to kill if you come too close.

From Yogyakarta most people book organised tours to Bromo as it’s way easier, but it’s also quite expensive so me and the English guy Chris decided to be adventurous and do it all ourselves.

Despite having to change trains and busses a few times along the way it was easy and straight forward, cheaper too. Once we got a bit lost while looking for the last bus but then we ran into 4 Indonesians who were also going to Bromo – such luck! Thanks to them we got a ride up to the mountain village, cheap accommodation in a home stay, split cost on a jeep rental for a whole day, and fun company!

At 3.30am the jeep came to pick us up and what happened from there was the most surreal experience I’ve ever had.

In the dark we drove down to the desert volcano area, the only thing you could see was the stars and the full moon above us and some other jeeps way ahead of us. I thought for a second I was still sleeping and dreaming I was in a Starship Troopers movie.

We got to a view point from where you best see the sunrise and it was absolutely freezing! But when the sun rose over the mountainous landscape it all felt worth it… stunning.

After sunrise we drove down to Bromo and into the desert. It was hard to breath due to the sandstorm but I didn’t mind, it was all just too fascinating. Rangers and horses around us, a Hindu temple in the middle, and an active vulcano in front of us.

We climbed up to the crater and looked down the hole – a gate straight into earth. Smoke was slowly rising from it and I felt small… like a very small and insignificant being on this planet. A scary but good feeling.

After we climbed Bromo we were driven to a spot in the desert where you can hear the sand sing in the wind. Unfortunately the wind had stopped blowing by then so we didn’t hear anything… so we took some silly photos of ourselves instead!

We came back to the village around 1pm and went straight for a big lunch and from there back to Probolinggo where we took into a hotel. Man it was good to finally have a shower and clean clothes put on. But no time for rest! The next morning we said goodbye to our local friends and headed for the next adventure – Ijen Plateu, one of the most dangerous places on earth.

I watch the old woman stop by my room, dressed in her nicest clothes she starts her morning ritual by making offerings to the gods. She puts flowers all around the gates and doors, and she tosses water around her to bless her surroundings.
I smile as I observe her, and smell the sweet scent of incense, hoping that some of that holy water will land on me.

Feeling desperate to get out of Jakarta I bought a ticket for the night train to Yogyakarta. I was the only Westerner on the train and was lucky enough to have 2 seats for myself in the economy class so I could sleep.

At 4am, still dark out, we arrived in Yogya. I didn’t know where to go as I had no hotel booked, so I just sat outside the station and smoked a cigarette to get my head together. Then I opened my LonelyPlanet guide from 2008, hoping it would still be valid, and saw that there should be some hotels nearby so I started walking.

Down a little alleyway I found a place – Losmen Setia Kawan. They didn’t have any available rooms until the morning but the guy let me sleep in the lobby sofa so long, fine by me.
It was a great hotel with art painted on every wall, free coffees & teas, two roof terrasses to relax on, and a friendly owner who is the artist. The cheapest room was 125,000R (£8) a night, with a double room, it was really cute.

In the next few days I walked around town which is full of awesome graffiti, plenty alleyways to discover, too much batik art, chess players on every corner, loooads of music and buskers, enough rickshaws to carry the entire population, and friendly locals all wanting to have a chat to practice their English.

One day I booked a tour through the hotel to go see the ancient Buddhist and Hindu temples Borobudur and Prambanan and on this tour I met an English guy who I’ve been travelling with since as we were both heading towards Bali.

Although Yogya was a nice place, I felt that my 4 days there was enough. You’d need one day for seeing Borobudur and Prambanan, and a couple more days to just hang around exploring the town. Don’t miss going out on the main road Marliboro after all the market stalls have packed up around 10pm – this is when the town comes to life! And also don’t miss eating dinner at a street food stall as this is where you’ll get music entertainment from one of the many buskers. Just don’t pay them too early or you won’t get to hear the whole song!

Surprisingly few restaurants in town but the best food is found on the street anyway.

Yogya has more rockshaws than people to carry so we felt we needed to support them and hired a guy. With the three of us crammed into one bike we felt sorry for the guy and jumped off halfway… still paid him full fare though!

The streets are constantly full of music – young guys are either singing in bands or walk around town with a guitarr, giving you a performance while you eat.

My artistic hotel “Losmen Setia Kawan” – the owner is a really friendly guy who paints and does tattoos.

One of the hotel roof terrasses – my favourite place to sit and check my email or enjoy the daily thunder storms.

Batik art in the making – inside one of the art studios.