Cow Nomad

Palm sugar cake, banana leaf rice, fried casava and fish ball soup: Indonesian Street Food

Published on January 21, 2017January 21, 2017 by rosaliebeLeave a comment

Local food is really some of the best things to enjoy in Indonesia. If one avoids very touristic restaurants, it’s fairly cheap as well. And as many problems I had to digest some of the fried instant noodles, as little of a problem it was to digest the more “local” street food dishes like Bakso Ayam or steamed rice curries in banana leafs.

Bakso Ayam: A comon street food. Soup with small balls inside, mostly made out of fish or meat. Served often with rice crackers.

Small sweet cake filled with red bean past

yayawarung — Fried rice noodles with chicken, fried egg and rice prawn crackers. I enjoyed this spicy dish in a street cafe in Gerupuk (Lombok).

A Balinese rice cakes. Delicious and soaked in palm sugar sirup.

Denpasar: Steamed rice with tempe and tofu, filled with raosted vegetables in a banana leaf with hot sauce. Fried casava as side dish. Classic Indonesian street food, and my personal favourite.

Fruit stand in Trawangan: pick your smoothie combo

Balinese street food: a woman is selling these traditional small cakes made of rice and coconut flour and other delicious ingredients in her trolly on the streets.

Banana pancake with palm sugar sirup is a common breakfast or snack

During a car ride a small rusty vehicle in front of us transported a common local snack: fried casava. It is prepared from casava flour and fried like a very thin pancake in a lot of oil. Our driver, with whom we became friends, had a weakness for doughnuts-and apparently other fried things too-as he confessed to us. He suddenly stopped, got out of the car to stop the vehicle in front, just to let us taste the casava.

Pineapple cream filled cookies: Love them or hate them. Or in my case both. There is a variety of crazy flavoured cookies to discover in Indonesia. They are to be found in even the tiniest of all local street stores.

Balinese offerings: The soul of Ubud

Published on January 14, 2017January 14, 2017 by rosaliebeLeave a comment

Offerings are a main feature of Balinese culture for centuries. They are put everywhere on the streets of Ubud a few times a day as gifts to the Hindu gods but also keep people from getting too stressed out about everyday life because they have to focus on these small things to put infront of their houses or temples or even in their cars sometimes.

A women carrying offerings in a big basket on her head.

In that way giving offerings and preparing them can be seen also as a kind of meditation or fucusing of the mind. Usually they include rice, some kind of sweet, cake or cookie, an incense stick and some Frangipani (aka Plumeria) or other flowers. All of those are kept in a small woven basket of rice leafs. Offerings are what I miss the most from Indonesia. Their smell and apparence and simply the act behind it inspired me and made me feel good every day of the travel.

Offering in a car, including money and some packed chewing gum for the gods.

Frangipani flowers are essential to Balinese offerings. They are included in almost every ceremony and offering.

Entrace to the Tirta Empul: A stone figure of a Balinese woman in traditional ceremony outfit with Frangipani flower decoration in her hair.

Balinese people bathing and praying in the holy water pool where the water from the wells is led to. Offerings are placed next to the water.

More offerings for the gods at the Tirta Empul (Holy Water Temple)

Everyday praying at the holy temple, Frangipani and other colorful offering elements are included in the prayer

Inside the Goa Gajah cave are lingam fragments of Shiva, his phallus (penis) and Yoni, his female side of his self. The Hindu god Shiva is often presented as a phallus symbol. Other times he is shown in his androgyne form Ardhanarishvara or split in a male and female part like in these stone figurines. Daily offerings are brought here to honor Shiva and these stone figurines that are dated back to the 11th centur or even earlier like the cave they were built in.

Incense sticks are included in most offering ceremonies

Here at the gardens of Goa Gajah like in many places arund Ubud the small Balinese umbrellas are set up next to the temple offerings.

Woven baskets for temple offerings at the Gunung Kawi

Small offerings along the stone path at Gunung Kawi

Frangipani flowers on the stone monument in front of the Saraswati temple

Denpasar

Published on December 26, 2016January 13, 2017 by rosaliebeLeave a comment

Although I spent only one day in Denpasar before catching my flight I can give two certain statements. First there is some awesome local street food to find on street corners if one is not too scared to eat at places where usually only locals go.

Street food in Denpasar: steamed rice with tempe and tofu, filled with raosted vegetables in a banana leaf with hot sauce. Fried casava.

Second one is a warning. Hardly ever was I more scared for my life than when I was walking by foot on the streets of Denpasar. Not because of bad people, not because of rape and murder. It was the traffic that scared me. Crossing the street can become a real adventure as pedestrians seem to be a curiosity here.

The Nakula Familiar Inn is not only home to birds in captivity (like many Balinese houses) but also a recommendable place to stay. Rooms are very acceptable and prices are low. Owners are friendly and helpful.

A Balinese rice cake breakfast at Nakula is on the house. Delicious and soaked in palm sugar sirup. Yay.

Ubud

Published on December 26, 2016January 21, 2017 by rosaliebeLeave a comment

Considering myself as a traveler not a tourist, I was quite surprised at how much I loved busy Ubud. So much to see here in Balis “art capital”, it is one of the few places where tourism didn’t suck out all of the flair of a place. The small Asian city is blooming of artist shops and amazing food places. Walking through the colorful streets can easily fill a couple of days, just enjoying life as it is. Most importantly in order to not break the fun is to take a rain jacket. Rain comes and goes as it wishes here and that so almost every day, which is great because it allowes the area to be homeland to many interesting kinds of flora and fauna all the year. Ubud, the green spot of Bali.

Balinese street food: a woman is selling these traditional small cakes in her trolly on the streets. They are made of rice and coconut flour and other delicious ingredients.

View captured on one of the main roads of Ubud.

View from Anuman Coffee. A great, not expensive and usually not crowded place to enjoy drinks and food.

“Offering” to myself: dragon fruit smoothie bowl at Anuman Coffee

Offerings are put everywhere on the street a few times a day. They are a gift to the Hindu gods but also keep people from getting too stressed out about everyday life because they have to focus on these small things to put infront of their houses or temples or even in their cars sometimes. In that way giving offerings and preparing them can be seen also as a kind of meditation or fucusing of the mind. Usually they include rice, some kind of sweet, cake or cookie, an incense stick and some Frangipani (aka Plumeria) or other flowers. All of those are kept in a small woven basket of rice leafs. Offerings are what I miss the most from Indonesia. Their smell and apparence and simply the act behind it inspired me and made me feel good every day of the travel.

A women carrying offerings in a big basket on her head.

A decorative woven offering hanging from a roof in front of a house.

Even the bills come with small floral gifts.

Decorations at the Monkey Cafe, they know how to prepare coffee better than most places here.

Handmade Balinese batik masks from wood. Love.

BaBiYa: Korean food in Ubud. Never had a better dinner in my life. Owners are very friendly and explained to us everything about the food they prepared. Love this tiny place. Amazing!

Dinner at BaBiYa: Chicken Bulgogi and side dishes. Cold cucumber soup with algae. Hands down, best soup of my life. As a desert we shared one mango pudding ice cream. Heaven.

Small sweet bean cake, got it at a super market and liked it so much that I took a few packages to bring to my friends back home.

Must be the madest sweet ever: These small sugery balls have the consistency of a rubber ball that has been in a liquid for decades. And they taste like that too. So much (disgusting) fun!

Anna is tring on a traditional Balinese festive outfit. Beautiful!

Serious guard dog in front of a private temple garden.

This one wanted just kuddles and kisses…and most likely some treats I didn’t have.

Charcoal and dragon fruit ice cream. Mouth watering.

The Threads of Life Textile Center provides a collection of trditional Balinese weavings and other small art pieces. The artists involved are paid a fair price for their hard work. Worth a visit.

Balinese shadow play puppets seen in a window of an artisan shop.

Ubud Art Center: Located outside the crowded center of Ubud the Art Center is a place for selected Balinese artists of different styles. You can visit the center for free and look around. Prices are high but for a reason, some of the artists are really talented.

Capitalistic tourism: the slightly disturbing side of Bali. The pictures of plastic Buddhas in neon colors pruduced as a mass a product in China I skip for now in my travel blog.

Temples of Ubud: Most of the houses have smaller or bigger temples in their back or front garden, many of them are private and not open for visitors. Others are open for everyone. Most visitors come here mainly to see famous temples and Spas. Although there is so much more than temples and rice fields to see in Ubud, still these old constructions are an important part of the Balinese culture until today. Bali is often referred to as the island of the thousand temples, although there must be more than thousand temple gardens…

The wells of the Tirta Empul aka “Holy Water Temple” come from unter the ground under the water of this small lake the temple was built around. For Balinese people the water from is holy because of it’s healing powers. To take a bath in it gives a blessing to the healthy and cures the sick, so they say.

Balinese people bathing and praying in the holy water pool where the water from the wells is led to.

More offerings for the gods at the Tirta Empul

Dogs take a rest at the old temple garden.

A girl is watching the residents of two smaller pools inside the temple installation: koi fish. They are holy as the water they swim in.

The area around the temples in Ubud and around Ubud is green at all time because the climate allows these plants to prosper every month of the year.

Because we wanted to really enjoy our temple visits, we decided not to make a “grand tour” which would have included all the temples around and in Ubud. Instead we picked a few interesting temples and spend a little more time there. A decision we didn’t regret. Especially at places that were built many hundreds or even thousands of years ago, represent a big part of a culture, quality time spent enjoying the atmosphere goes over a quantity of temple pictures (although I took more than enough pictures as it is ;)).

Especially at the Goa Gajah aka “Elephant Cave” I spent quite some time. Being inside of that cave temple was an experience for me I won’t forget although I can’t really put all what I experienced as so special about this place in words.

The cave entrance at Goa Gajah is shaped like a Balinese mask to scare away evil

Inside the cave are lingam fragments of Shiva, his phallus (penis) and Yoni, his female side of his self. The Hindu god Shiva is often presented as a phallus symbol. Other times he is shown in his androgyne form Ardhanarishvara or split in a male and female part like in these stone figurines. They are dated back to the 11th centur or even earlier like the cave they were built in.

The Shiva fragments inspired me a lot in an academic and personal way, they caught my attention and made me go deeper into ancient Hindu mythology.

Walking down the path from Goa Gajah there is a lot more to see. Here like in many places the small Balinese umbrellas are set up next to the temple offerings.

The temple is surrounded by a garden of green jungle vegetation.

Old stone fragments along the path that leads through the gigantic temple garden of Goa Gajah.

The Gunung Kawi temple manifestation was built in a river valley that functions as genius old Balinese watering system for rice fields. Around 300 steps lead down the valley along a stone wall to the temple facilities. Balinese mythology tells us that the Gunung Kawi temple was built by a giant named Kebo with his finger nails in one night, which would be a pretty impressive thing to do.

Dated back to the 11th century these monuments of Gunung Kawi are one of the oldest to be seen on Bali. They are carved directly into the stone.

The last temple I would like to document here is Pura Taman Saraswati. Saraswati is the Hindu goddess of wisdom and “her” temple lies behind a small pond with lotus flowers (water lillies). The temple is a family temple. That means it can be visited under the conditions of it’s oweners.

The steps to the temple door are adorned by stone dragons in moss.

Side wall of the temple with hanging offerings

Ubud was just one of those places I wished to maybe visit again some other time of my life to make the “farewell” less painful. Such an enjoyable spot, we were sad to leave to Denpasar to catch our flight back to Europe. Ubud, we love you.

Gerupuk

Published on December 26, 2016January 13, 2017 by rosaliebeLeave a comment

Here life still goes in slow motion with ease.

The small village depends only on fishing and the few surfers who sattle down here to enjoy the waves.

There is no ATM, only few places to eat and small shops to buy basic living utensils and cookies. Cream cookies…

Love them or hate them. Or in my case both.

Kids taking a motor bike ride through the village.

Harbour of Gerupuk…never seen bigger boats than those locals fisher boats around here.

Sea food curry cooked in a banana leaf, my favourite local dish. Tasts like heaven.

Only locals and those relaxed surfer dudes and girls here.

Chili drying in the sun in front of a house in the village.

We were the only people here who came as travellers and didn’t chose the place for surfing but just as a place without tourism-bim-bam and busy traffic. The village has quite some atmosphere in the evening. Chickens run free next to watch dogs on the earth path which leards through the village. At the end of the path is Bruces hideout.

Quite some character: Bruce is an around 70 years old (or in his case young) surfer dude from California who decided to move to Gerupuk many years ago where now he lives together with his traveller-friendly Rotweiler dog, his wife from Java and her daughter. Before his settle-down time he travelled around the world. Until this day he goes for a surf every day, we coudn’t believe him when he told us his age. Next to their own house Bruce built a small Bungalow which he rents on Air BnB. Absolutely recommendable “hideout”, although a little pricy, but still worth it when you take not only the compfortable bungalow but also the view, garden and nice company and family surrounding in consideration.

The day brings many different shades of light. When I took this picture the sun was high.

Butterflies are feasting and mating in the garden.

One of the many benefits of standing up early.

Here comes the low tide. Time for a longer walk on coast line.

Time for a very late breakfast at Shake and Bake after the beach walk and some garden relaxing time.

Shake and Bake: Food at this place is a little expensive compared to other places but they offer all home made breakfast all day, healthy snacks and shakes…and sometimes pizza. Even the coffee tasts strong and delicious. Can be a good alternation to the local cuisine for once. Besides that, it’s simply a nice place to hang out on the shady benches with a great view on the harbour while sipping on a black iced coffe. Yes.

Gerupuk is, compared to other places we’ve seen in Indonesia, less dirty. Mostly because of the absence of tourism.

When you follow the path through the village, just next to Shake and Bake there is a small local restaurant called Monkey Cafe with a small and simple menu. We didn’t get irritated by the fact that we ´were the only guests here and fully enjoyed our dinner in green: spicy green noodles with rice crackers and a green smoothie. Local prices and tasty dishes.

Gerupuk is a treasure for travellers who are looking for a hide out from tourism. An insider recommendation not to be found in any lonely planet guide so far.

During our car ride to the airport a vehicle in front of us transported a common local snack: fried casava. Our driver, with whom we became friends, had a weakness for doughnuts, as he confessed to us. He suddenly stopped, got out of the car to stop the vehicle in front, just to let us taste the casava.

To avoid another risky boat trip with the “fast boat” to Bali, we decided to take a cheap flight to Denpasar…where, after spending many hours waiting for our luggage, we took a car to Ubud.

Kuta Lombok

Published on December 25, 2016January 14, 2017 by rosaliebeLeave a comment

To get to Kuta took us some hours and Indonesian traffic is madness. Motor bikes are by far the most common means of transportation on Lombok like on many of Indonesias Islands. It is a fast and easy way to come from one end of the island to another but it also is a very dangerous way of movement which costs much death and injury every year. On our travel we heard too many stories of locals who have family members in the hospital due to an accident with a motor bike or nearly died in an accident themselves. This is why, although I do enjoy a nice bike ride, we chose not to go around by motor bike, the Indonesian traffic seems just a little too chaotic for that, as even locals often have trouble to get around without injuries.

The long beach of Kuta Lombok has one big advantage, it is not at all crowded with tourists and at the same time has beautiful sand, it is easy to go into the water. Children are playing naked in the small waves near the costline, laughing and greeting as we walk by them. Some older ones are persistently trying to sell their bracelets on the beach to earn some money for school fees.

The beach in Kuta is made of millions and millions of small balls which look too perfect not to be formed by a machine.

Duyung. One of the few words I managed to keep in my brain in Bahasa. Maybe because I was dreaming of being a mermaid since I was a kid.

There are some nice spots in Kuta Lombok besindes the beach, some of the local people still live in small fishermen houses next to the beach. But it hurts to see that some of them live in poverty only meters away from the street scene of the location with its with bars, restaurants and busy traffic. It obviously becomes hard to earn a family living on fishing here, so it seems.

What looks like a miniature version of a real one is the actual mosque of Kuta Lombok.

A puppy is taking a nap in the shade of a palm tree.

Many people living in the fishermen village have watch dogs. They always run free, seem like straight dogs but belong to the small houses on the coast line. When it gets dark the dogs take security walks on the beach, always on alert.

Cafe 7 is a very rasta-style place serving good food, music and positive vibes. It sure is an international travellers hot spot around here.

The Spot Bungalows is my recommendation for a place to sleep, owners are caring and you get a nice cabin including a hammock in front for small money. There are dogs sleeping in the garden. The food and drinks are not overwhelming but for an overnight a good choice.

After one night in Kuta we took a car to our next stop: Gerupuk.

Rinjani

Published on October 28, 2016January 13, 2017 by rosaliebeLeave a comment

After taking the local boat from Trawangan we arrived at Bangsal, Lombok from where, after one night down, we started our trekking tour to Rinjani. When I say we spend one night down, I mean that Anna slept in our queen size bed provided from the trekking company, and I was l lying awake next to her, trying to sleep. But I was just too excited about the following day. And that for a reason because this trip turned out to be the most challenging and at the same time most beautiful trip of my life (so far).

Colorful street art at Bangsal – this flower design is all over Lombok…for some reason I didn’t figure out

The next morning started and we grabbed our backpacks, put on our hiking shoes and off we went to start our trekking tour with Rudy Trekker to Rinjani. (If you want to book a tour, which you will have to if you want to make it to Rinjani, Rudy Trekker is one of the best options to go with. They will provide you with everything you need, all the information you need is on their website and they pick up all trash, nothing is left behind, which should be most important criterion when it comes to choosing your trekking company.)

Captured a lovely cow on the way, enjoying the grass at around 1000 m above the sea.

One hour of walking before the breath taking mountain area starts…

On our first day of the tour we made it to the first “camp site” at around 2100 meters above the sea level, which was basically just a place on the path where people put up their tents. And so did we. With us on adventure were Will, Kelvin (two roomies from Oxford, one of them Singaporean, one British) and Jay from Thailand. It’s strange how extreme life situations can bring people together. We really had a great time on that mountains.

14442664_10154113417276715_2073664305_n — Taking a break during the 8 hour trekking route on day one.

Our view to the path that should lead us to the summit the following day filled us with (slightly troubling) excitement. From this point it looked way too narrow.

Finally after sweating what felt like waterfalls we reached our camp site.

14459691_10154113417271715_672613574_n — Time for some serious meal after a day of exhausting trekking.

Will, Kelvin and Jay realxing and enjoying the view from the camp site.

Our tents were literally built up in the sky. In the evening an amazing spectacle was happening infront of our eyes. Behind us the sun was going down, shades of mountains were moving. And in front of us the moon was rising at the same time over the green shaded valley.

At 2 am the next day we woke up, tried to grab a banana pancake with our freezing hands, and began to climb up to the summit of Rinjani with lamps on our heads. The way to the top was dusty and hard work. When we finally made it all the way up the feeling, just standing there and looking down at everything we had established in one and a half days, it was amazing. Although in the day time it was so hot we were sweating like hell, the early morning hours at the summit made us very thankful to a hot cup of coffee to warm up. It was literally freezing, our hands were shaking and we were shivering.

The view almost took my last breath away after the exhausting and challenging night climb.

The way back down to the camp wasn’t easy but the previous climb made it seem like it was the easiest thing in world.

Vulcanic earth everywhere on the way down from the summit

A monkey enjoying the break of the day time and view on the vulcano, it’s increadible how some species manage to survive on daily bases on around 3500 meters above the sea level.

Anna and me: standing on a cliff above the vulcano

On our way back to our camp side, the day break brought new heat, sunlight and perspective on the vulcano lake.

After a short break we began to climb all the way down to the vulcano lake. What we didn’t know before was that the way down would be even more challenging than the summit climb. The path required all attention in order not to slip and break all bones. But the view was so breath taking and magical, that once again it made me almost forget about my tired body.

As the narrow, steep and unsteady path on the rocks ends, landscapes of moss which took me to fairy tales emerged, as we continued our journey all the way down to the lake.

I really fell in love with the mossy shades of green and this whole layer of the mountain landscape.

View on the already smoking vulcano from the lake

We totally felt like we deserved this amazingly good chicken curry, our crew prepared for us down at the lake side.

Finally at the lake, view on the vulcano. But the sun and the flies here don’t let us sleep, so we go down to the hot springs, that spring sulphuric water into small pools. The water in the coolest and biggest pool has around 40 degrees Celsius. And funny fact: ther are small white fish living in it, feeding on alga.

What an amazing feeling to swim in the hot spring pool. Wow.

For me seeing an active vulcano that near for the first time was an increadible experience. What we didn’t know at that time is that it would come to an vulcano eruption just some days after we left lombok. And yet I would do it again for the sake of the life experience.

We took the rest of the day before we continued our journey the next morning. But only after I went to the hot springs again. The path led us yet up again on a lower summit before the final climb-down to the station. On this last and third day of our mountain adventure we didn’t climb less than 12 hours.

We called them our “super heroes”: they managed to climb all these extremely challenging paths and made it look like something easy with many kilos on their backs in a tempo that even extreme athletes can only dream of, and in flip flops. In my eyes they must have some kind of super powers. Without them we would have never made it, due to the fact that they carried all our food, water, tents and sleeping bags. Most of them work in this sector to support their families. Climbing the mountain in flip flops is their life reality, because on Lombok island, as it seems, they don’t find better alternatives to finance their basic life needs.

The journey all the way down seemed endless

Some floral survivers take life as it comes.

Plants and animals change as we enter the lower jungle area of the mountains

We arrived down at the station of Rudy Trekker when it was already dark. Our walk through the last part of the dark jungle was another amazing experience of a life time.

Tired like never before with pain in most of our body parts we fell into the soft sheets, barely able to lay down due to our exhausted limbs.

The next morning came fast and we hopped in a car to Kuta Lombok…

Gili Trawangan

Published on October 25, 2016January 13, 2017 by rosaliebeLeave a comment

Gili “T” was, quite some time ago, a beautiful island with interesting culture, flora and fauna, I am sure of that. And then the party tourism arrived. If you manage to ignore the fact that now this island seems to exist for (mostly Australian) tourists who want to have the party weekend of their lives, you can still enjoy the gorgeous sundowns, bike rides through the village (away from the pure consume oriented main raod) and the good spirit most of the local people seem to have kept. During my time on Meno I got used to feeling save and relaxed 24-7. On Trawangan there is just too many Drugs, Party and sex tourism which made it impossible for me to really enjoy my time there after dark, just being honest.

I resisted the temtation of trying these shrooms.

The shark point and turtle area is where you have good chances to see a sea turtle and with a bit of luck even some sharks. Trawangans turtle sanctuary is similar to the one on Meno but still very nice to see.