Surfing the World

Little Tube

2010-06-26T17:03:00.001+02:00

Finally a little El Zonte tube of me caught on photo by Vaquero.

El Zonte tube - June 2010

I'll update soon...

2010-01-19T01:49:00.002+01:00

For now this is just a glimpse into my life and my recent surf-safari...
I just returned to El Salvador from Nicaragua...

Getting a little cover up...

Check out my other page for more info.

Stay tuned,

Sebastian

Ready... Steady... Gooooo!

2009-08-02T16:44:00.006+02:00

(without words)

Tonight at 3am we're going to start into a new adventure - two years in El Salvador!
We will keep you updated soon!

For now,

Sebastian & Nadine

Back for Good

2008-03-13T15:12:00.004+01:00

Me aka "the whitie" waiting for my first heat at the Senegales Championships

It has been a long, long, long time since my last post.
First and most important: I'm still alive! Still smiling, travelling, surfing and trying to live life to the fullest!

Second and important to say, I haven't been lazy. I often get email where people ask me: "Did you quit your studies?" or "Don't you have to work?"

Hell no,
I didn't quit my studies, but finished them in November...

and...

Hell yeah,
of course I have to work, but while surfing I try to live a basic life, cause one doesn't need much when you have the ocean, right?

And to those who ask themselves, if I stopped my surf safari...

N E V E R.

This is just the beginning... Soon this page will be full of pics and stories about my most recent trip to Senegal!

Stay tuned,
for now... your "whitie" Sebastian

In Memory Of A True Legend

2007-07-06T00:05:00.000+02:00

Richard Taylor

*6.7.1981
†7.8.2004

"I like to live life, live for today not tomorrow!" richard taylor

About three years ago on the 4th July 2004 - two days before his birthday - Rich entertained us all with his ultimate "flip-flop-dance" on the first UCON party in Germany... He always knew how to have fun, how to animate people, how to have a good time!
Apart from being a gifted rollerbalder and skier, he was a unique and very special character, always laughing, full of energy and spreading positive vibes wherever he was!
He truly loved life, loved the extremes of life, loved to travel, loved to laugh, simply loved to live life to the full - "live for today and not tomorrow"!

His positive and open-minded spirit has been a great inspiration to me!
He is still greatly missed and will never be forgotten!

R.I.P. Rich

"It's all good, all the time, it can never be bad, peace!" richard taylor

To watch an edit in memroy of Richard by Mark Trebble, with a song about Rich by Anthony Mackie click here.

To support the RICHARD TAYLOR MEMORIAL FUND click here.

Marocco - Perfect Waves to start 2007

2007-01-15T05:35:00.000+01:00

One of my favourite pictures!

Ben droppin into a bomb...
Me just below him paddling to the inside...
and actually getting pounded by the wave seconds later.. :-)
And Hale on the shoulder watchin the show...
The DREAMTEAM alone in the lineup... and charging!

I just returned from my trip to Marocco. Wow! There is a lot to write about and for me this update is probably the best since Indonesia!
A couple of days ago "the family" had its last dinner in Agadir, where we reflected on a trip nobody would have ever imagined to become this perfect.
The last 2 weeks of our trip were just magic! We stayed over a week in Safi, a small city about 200k's south of Casablanca.
Lonely Planet's description: "...Maroccan phosphate idustry (...) huge chemical plant (...) as a result Safi is nearly devoid of any foreign tourists although it is hugely popular with Moroccans..." ;-)

Safi - The old Medina

For us Safi was a quite little town with a beautiful old city and surfingwise probably the highlight of the trip! We found a worldclass righthand reefbreak, offering us about double overhead powerfull waves for super fast long rides, during the whole time we stayed there.
The best thing: We surfed it ALONE!
Reflecting on the trip this seems to be the craziest aspect of it. All over the trip we were all by ourselves in the line-up. Not that we surfed little beachies, we surfed perfect points and reefbreaks just by ourselves - I guess this is every surfer's dream?!

Hale, Ben and me running to the point in Safi when we surfed it the 1st time...
I really love this picture, it captures the emotions of this moment!

Thanks to Hannu, another finish bloke, photographer and our sixth "family" member, who arrived on NYE I can now finally present you some surfing pictures of these great days.

Late drop on a big set...

Andy, one of the 2 Kiwis...
I can remember this wave very well... It was a freakin heavy bomb!
I just paddeled back out and saw him gettin really deep under this thick lip...

Me - cutback

Ben with one of his stylish powerfull cutbacks...
Behind him already the next perfect wave...
Nobody in the lineup, except for us... Can you believe that?

Hale - what a nice cutback

Nobody of us expected to surf big waves like that on this trip. On some of the days only Ben, Hale and me surfed, because the others were to scared to go out. Apart from the usual problems like "Where the f... can we go in and out of the water?" and "How can we paddle through the maze of sharp rocks without gettin cut or dinging our boards?" there was one more minor problem...
The wave was next to a THE big chemical plant and they pour their sewage directly into the ocean through a big pipe... So when the wind direction was right you could smell it while surfing and when you got caught in the rip you could taste the "fresh" water... hmm...
What would you do? :-)

Left: Sewage comin out of the pipe... hm.
Right: The Phosphate factory

When not in the water we either cleaned off the chemicals in a "Hammam" (public bath/shower/sauna/etc.) or we enjoyed freshly squized mandarine juices while sunbathing on our hotel's roofterrace.

Left: Fruitstall
Right: The man next door squizing about 40 mandarines for my 2 l. Juice.

We stayed in a little family run hotel, whose owner always had a big smile on his face. He was a man living and loving his life, always happy, super friendly and helpful. A really nice person!
A funny story: The Moslems had their celebration going on for the whole week after NYE. We misunderstood them, when they said everything (restaurants, shops...) will be closed and thought it would only be for 1st January.... Actually it was for the whole week, so we were almost starving... :-) Imagine you surf heavy waves every day and just eat bread and mandarines for a week... You are gettin "hangry" (our expression for: so hungry that you are gettin angry) :-) When the owner realized that we are gettin slimmer and slimmer and more and more "hangry" he invited us for a Couscous Tajine. His wife cooked in the shower (= kitchen) for a couple of hours only to serve us six a Tajine that could feed 20 people easily! Haha! Still they were surprised that we couldn't eat it all (actually not even half of it)! ;-)

Left: The owner's wife with the big Couscous Tajine
Right: "the family" with the owner of our hotel

Left: Doorway in the old city of Safi
Right: After the ceremony we could hardly find anything eatable for a week...
and we also didn't see any more sheep riding on motorbikes! :-)

"The family" in our hotel room

After Safi we headed up north, stopping in Al Jadida to check the waves and in Casablanca to surf a very gnarly left reefbreak called 'Dar Bouazza'.

This is the drivers perspective in Marocco - I love this shot...

Casablanca - The biggest city we have seen in Marocco

We also spent one day sightseeing in Casablanca, where we saw the impressive Hasan II Mosque, the 3rd largest Mosque in the world. It's 210m minaret is the highest in the world! The artwork of this building with all it's details is amazing!

Hasan II Mosque - The 3rd largest Mosque in the world

However we soon decided to return to Safi for some more waves. It was a bit smaller this time, but still great fun!
The owner of our hotel welcomed us warmly and we all felt like "coming home". We stayed another two days surfing "Phosphates" and enjoying the flair of the city. I really liked the old city with all it's small colorfull sideways and I love this coffee and "thé à la minte" mentality; small cafés everywhere with chairs facing the streetlife.

Left: I love the colorful doors you can find all over Marocco
Right: Safi streets - colorful, old buildings - this doorway is from the 14th century.

The last week of the trip we slowly moved south again. Our first stop was Arbi's Place. We wanted to visit him and the family again and of course surf our secret spot. Again a very nice time!

Playing with the kids was as exhausting as the surf sessions... :-)

Me with the kids at Arbis's place

I really, really love her smile, she is such a cute kid

A smile says more than words

After our short visit at Arbi's we drove back to Taghazoute where we rented a nice appartement for the last three days. The drive back south in our Palio was sketchy, yet great fun. The car was stacked with 2 people in the front, 4 in the back and 10 surfboards on the roof... As it was too heavy for the roofrack it already came through the roof and due to the fully compressed suspension we could only drive 60 km/h max. This was still too much, so we ended up with a crooked rim... :-)
The scenery once again blew me away and the goats surprised all of us as they where climbing trees like monkeys...

Marocco in it's beauty

A goat feeding on the tree.

Donkey rider on the beach

The last few days we surfed Immesouane, a perfect sandbottom right point. Although it was small we all loved the wave. You could ride it for over 500m and then simply walk back on the beach and jump back in on the point. This was the first spot where we had to share the waves with the crowds. Anyway it was a perfect way to end this trip. Nothing to be afraid of. No reef, no intimidating drops at the take-off, simply a perfect wave to practice turns and enjoy the surrounding scenery of the beautiful bay.

Imesouane - A perfect pointbreak... Nuff said??

This was it!
My dream came true! I finally joined and surfed with my two best friends from Australia after 2 years again!

Hale and me - it was such a great time with you bro!!!

Of course it was also an enrichment to have Jaakko "Uki" and Anssi and in the end Hannu on this trip to complete "the family". It was a perfect mix of characters sharing perfect waves in a beautiful country.
Thank you guys for this trip, I miss you a lot...
It won't be our last trip in this formation and it won't be my last trip to Marocco! I'm sure about that!

Thanks for reading and following my journey!

Bessalama,
Sebastian*

The END -/the beginning of something new...

One last sunset.... I love the African sunsets!

Marocco - the last week of 2006...

2006-12-31T00:50:00.000+01:00

Old Berber man

Ssalamu 'lekum!
Wow! Although it has just been a week since my last post we experienced so much that it could fill a whole month!

Sidi Bouzid - A gnarly beast of a wave

We celebrated Christmas down south at the boarder of the Western Sahara in Mirleft.
I was a calm and simple, yet wonderfull Christmas! We had a great dinner; Maroccan soup, fried fish with traditional bread and vegetables, a seafood Tajine and as a dessert a TimTamTeaTime, with the TimTams that I stored over a year since I returned from Australia, just to share them with my boys!
As already mentioned in the 'PS' of my last post, Santa finally rewarded our search for waves with some good surf! Actually it was gettin better day by day!
Chasin the best swell we started to head up north again on the 26th.

On the road with Palio

On our drive we decided to take a bumpy road that seemed to be a possible shortcut, which it was by far not but it prooved anyway to be one of the best decisions of this trip so far.
We found a small bay with a few houses, which is not even mentioned on the map. I don't want to name it here, to keep it as our secret spot, but I guarantee you, if you drive this road at the right time, during the right tide and swell you can't miss the clean lines of swell startin on the horizon and rollin in to break on a right hand point reef... :-)

Our secret right point break

We surfed till the sun set and had the best session of this trip till that day. After we came out of the water a local who watched us surfing invited us to stay at his place! We ended up stayin 3 days with him, a very special time!

Good timing was needed to get in the line-up

Our neighbour with his daughter

Arbi serving tea

Left: Me and the little girl next door - what a beautiful kid!
Right: The 'family' and Arbi infront of his place

We surfed, cooked and had countless tearounds together! We all slept in a small room of his house, surrounded by beautiful nature and with the best view out of the window on our pointbreak!

The 'family' in our room at Arbi's

Our view at Arbi's place

Not much arround... a very special and peaceful place!

Attracted by the huge swell that is going to hit the coast tomorrow we eventually left Arbi's place yesterday and drove to Safi.

Safi - view from the roof of our hotel

Today we had a crazy surf on a double overhead beachbreak that was hard to read and often closed out unpredictably... I guess we will all not forget about the power of these waves for a while! :-)

I'm glad I pulled back on this one! I guess you can call that a big set!

Hale caught inside and just comin up! He is the little black dot in the whitewash!
I guess you don't wanna be in his body right there! :-)

In the evening one of the best waves of Marocco 'Le Jardin' finally started to work. It needs a solid 6ft plus swell to break and it was breakin already quite nice! The next days it should be perfect with the predicted 10ft+ swell!!!
So it is almost guaranteed that we surf into the new year!

'Le Jardin' - It just started working...
Tomorrow we surf it...

Apart from surfin we have seen some great scenery and had the chance to dive deeper into the Maroccan culture ahen stayin with Arbi! This country has such a great diversity of nature to offer! We are all really fascinated about it!!!

Left: Street in Tiznit
Right: Door in Tiznit

Desert down south...

Diversity... more vegetation up north

Cactuses down south

The people here are at the moment preparing their celebrations for NewYear, which is also celebrated in Islam! The streets a super busy at the moment till late and many sheep are enjoyin their last trips before being sacrified!

Left: View on the street from our hotel tonight - very busy!
Right: A sheep on his last journey! :-)

That's it for now from Marocco!
I hope you are all good and that you are all gettin good into the new year!

Much love and sunshine,
bessalama,
Sebastian*

As usual... today's sunset!

The First Week... Merry Christmas!!!

2006-12-23T23:35:00.000+01:00

Me infront of a house in a small fishing village south of Agadir

Hi there!!!
My first week in Marocco has passed and I'm super stoked about this place!
Whenever I travelled somewhere I tried to imagine what this place would look like and how it would be there... This time my imaginations didn't even come close to reality!
This place is magic!
To sum it up in a few words:
The people are super nice and friendly, the houses so simple but in their colors and style so beautiful, the landscape is so multifaceted and picturesque, the sunshine without a single cloud since I arrived makes one happy all day and the Maroccan food tastes incredibly good!!!

Beeing re-united with Hale and Ben makes this trip very special. One can say that everyone of us is gettin up every morning with a big smile, thankful and happy that we can all be together on this trip!

Together again... a dream has come true!

The first week of the trip:
Having the 'dreamteam' completed and extended with two of Hale's friends, Anssi and Jakko, we started our surf-safari and drove from Agadir a bit north to the small fishing village and surfing mekka of Tarhazoute. We had an apartement there for three days and explored the surrounding area with "Palio" our Fiat.

The 'yellow crew' and local kids

Shopin in the Souq in Agadir

We only surfed a couple of times around there, as there was hardly any swell. One session was south of Agadir in a beautiful small bay with a tiny fishing village far away from all the other civilization - GREAT!

Beautiful small fishing village nestled in a bay south of Agadir

The other one on a beach in the slums of Agadir, as it was the only place with any waves. This was a pretty crazy experience. The water was very polluted and smelled freakin bad and there was a garbage dump next to the beach... When we left we gave the kids some T-shirts and Surfwax and they gave us smiles in return.

The Slums of Agadir

Packing the car after a surf in the slums of Agadir

Yesterday we decided to head further south in hope for waves. Driving in Marocco is differnt!!! I think we never drove much faster than 70km/h... :-)

The whole crew and "Palio" our Fiat
From left to right: Ben, Anssi, Jakko, me and Hale

However, the surrounding scenery was great, so the drive was already worth the trip.

Left: Anssi
Right: Beautiful scenery on our drive down south

Drive through North West Africa - Simply beautiful!

Eventually we found some surf and based ourselves in a very small sleepy village called Mirleft. None of us was prepared for the freezin cold nights down here so we were all not sleepin to much. In the end I was sharin 2 blankets and a sleepinbag with Hale on a small mattress. :-)

Me and Hale sharing blankets and a sleeping bag to fight the cold night!

Today we had two surfsessions in average waves and explored the area a little bit.
We all love the chilled out village, which has only one sandy mainstreet with lots of small places where you can get super tasty traditional food...
We haven't made any plans for Christmas yet, we might stay here or drive further south, but one thing is for sure:
We have and will have a great time! ;-)

Sunset in Mirleft

I wish you all the best! Merry Christmas!!!
Lots of sunshine and a big smile from Marocco!

Sebastian

PS: This is an addition to last night's post, I'm writing this on December 24th...
Santa Clause finally sent us some waves!!! The swell has been better today and I took this nice shot of Hale rippin the Christmas waves this morning!

Hale ripping the Christmas waves...

Maroccan kids on the beach on Christmas morning

Me in the Maroccan sunset

Marocco - Another Dream Is Goin to Come True

2006-12-15T16:20:00.000+01:00

Agadir - Mosque

As some of you already know, I'm on the road again... This time in Africa on another surf-safari...

My day today started like a dream. When my plane departed in Frankfurt at 7.25 am, it was cloudy, rainy and cold, but only a few minutes later we hit through the thick layer of clouds and I enjoyed a beautiful sunrise in all it's colors! What a start into this adventure! When I arrived in Marocco around noon a Maroccan guy, who was on the same flight with me, offered me a lift into Agadir for free... He put my surfboards on the roof of his car and took me straight to my hotel, is this a service? The hotel is beautiful, clean, cheap as hell and with surprise I realized that I even have a hot shower... yeah!
Now I just strolled through town, gettin a first impression! I really like it!!! Agadir is far more beautiful than I thought it could be, it's not busy at all and so colorful and friendly... just my first impressions... Hm, and it's so warm, 25°C...

Anyway there is one thing which makes this trip already very special! Actually it's already guaranteed that the trip will be epic... this time there is one difference: I won't travel alone!!!
I'll catch up with my 2 best friends from my Australia trip, Ben from the US, who I haven't seen for almost 2 years and Hale from Finnland who I haven't seen for over a year...
My dream to catch up and surf with both of them will finally come true... I'm so excited!

Hale, me and Ben... almost 2 years ago in Byron Bay - Australia

The yellow crew... Hale, Ben and me... always spreading positiv vibes!
The infamous 'Octopus Dinner' on our 2nd last night together on April 15th, 2005.

I'm not sure how often I have the chance to jump on the net, anyway you'll hear from me...

Big smile,
Sebastian

PEACE

2006-11-24T13:31:00.000+01:00

Doves under the "Tour D'Eiffel" - Paris 2006

For ME this picture stands for, what we need the most in these days...
...days, in which we are far away from the most precious gift...
~PEACE~

I don't want to be melancholic by uploading this picture. I actually just updated my post "Back Home... And Still On The Road!" with pictures of the weekend in Paris and the week in Hintertux, and wanted to inform u about that... so scroll down and enjoy.
Doing that I stumbled over this picture and it simply reminded me of Peace. It made me think about how good life is at the moment to me, I realized how good things are goin and how happy I am. It also made me think about how all yous are doin? Hope you are all good, wherever you are in the world right now!
On the other hand it made me think about the last week and the last month and the cruelties we see, hear and read in the media day by day... news about cruelties, that already seem to be so normal, that we forget about them almost as fast as they reach us... Thinkin about this and more, I posted the picture, to make you think and maybe appreciate your life even more!

Keep on smiling and love life!

PEACE*

Some more impressions of Sumbawa

2006-11-10T19:23:00.000+01:00

Lakey Pipe - Pumpin' on Independence Day

Surfing wise it has been the highlight of my trip - Hu'u in Sumbawa.
I've never surfed waves heavier than there; I improved my surfing a lot and I learned to handle and face my fears on shallow reef and in bigger waves.
I've already written about my experiences there and I was super stoked when a friend of mine from Australia, who was there at the same time sent me some pictures that he took in the water on some of the best days....

Lakey Pipe - you gotta backdoor it... the heaviest wave I ever surfed.

The images of this post are all shot by Simon Chipper!! Thanks so much, I'm super stoked to present them to all of yous! They make me dream about this wonderfull time and look forward to the next time I jump into salty water...

Enjoy and dream!

Sebastian

Robbo from West-Oz gettin barreled at the Peak - What a picture!!!

Sequence of Lakey Peak - #1

Sequence of Lakey Peak - #2Lakey Peak - A perfect peak

My homie Frank... :-) I love the picture... he made the wave!

Lakey Peak - Some Aussie stalling to get barreled... Lakey Peak - Deep in the barrel

Periscopes - Only 3 guys out on this morning... altough it's pure glassy perfection!

Back Home... And Still On The Road!

2006-11-10T19:01:00.000+01:00

"La Seine" with the Eiffel Tower in the background

Since I returned from Indo about a month ago, I've been pretty busy.
At first I had to organize my university stuff, especially what concerns my entry exam papers, that I'm goin to write in the end of the semester.
Besides school, I started to work a lot again in the bar I used to work already before the trip, to make sure that my bank account keeps on showin positiv figures. :-)

Apart from that, however I couldn't resist to make a weekend trip to Paris to see Xavier Rudd again performin live there. It's was a great weekend! A lot of sightseeing and of course another mindblowing show of Xavier!

Xavier performin on stage

Xavier's stage setup

Paris is one of my most favourite cities in Europe, if not in the world!
I love the style of the city, the contrast between old and new architecture, the cultural treasures, the roads, the crazy traffic, the food, the diversity of styles and cultures that live together in harmony. A weekend is for sure not enough to explore Paris, anyway here a few impressions...

Sacre Coeur

Paris never sleeps...
left: Moulin Rouge
right: Eiffel Tower

View from the Eiffel Tower

Me, Maggie and Fabi at "La Defence"

A Group Picture on a mirror ball at "La Defence"

Just one week later I drove with my good friend Dominik for a week to Austria on the Hintertux Glacier to start there a project I called "Ride & Film", with some 14-19 year old teens, about which I'm goin to write my entry exam papers. It's difficult to describe what it is all about in only a few words, but to cut it short, it includes snowboarding, filming and mediawork. It was great fun workin with these kids, I'm super motivated to start my papers now and I hope it'll all work out. Here a few impression of a freezin cold week (-20°c)...

Hintertux Scenery

The first day was a dream - sunshine and snow - all that in October

My friend Dominik - I really aprreciate how much time you offered to help me with my "Zula"! THANKS!

Kickerline in the funpark

View from our house

My last day was one of the coldest days of the week and unfortunately it was also quite foggy. We went back to our house earlier in the afternoon, but the kids where still so motivated that they started to jib every single obstacle around our house. :-)

Niklas - "wheely"

Jan - Tailslide

Is there still any doubt that today's teens are no longer creative? :-)

Anyway, now I'm back hustlin in the bar (5 times this week) and of course studying hard!

The next 4 weeks are goin to be busy for sure, but I guess I can't complain! :-)

For now,
Sebastian

PS. After an over 4 months break of not rolling it was a great feeling to have wheels under my feet again... Which spot could motivate better than the infamous ledges of Paris Bercy.

Me about to grind the ledge of Paris Bercy

Me - "Royal" on the ledge of Paris Bercy

Go BIG and go home...

2006-10-05T08:05:00.000+02:00

Selamat datang everybody!
This is goin to be the last post of my trip! As I mentioned in my previous post, I wanted to spend my last weeks in Indo just surfin and relaxin as much as possible, at places I already know and love.
However, I never dreamt it would turn out like this...

Padang Padang - Huge hollow empty barrel!

As I mentioned in my short previous post, a new, big swell hit the coast of Bali. It was a 6-8ft swell which equals about 12-15ft faces, which means tripple overhead and bigger, depending on how and where the swell hits the coast and the reef... To stop counting the hight you could also simply say:

Uluwatu was gettin huge, Padang Padang started to work, Dreamland's peak started to work perfectly at lower tides and got less crowded and Balangan got really big, steep and fast, was still good, but crazy with its many sections, that unpredictably closed out!

Padang Padang: Only for very experienced surfers...

Left: Uluwatu
Right: The Uluwatu cave, the exit and only entry point to the wave

Uluwatu: Sets as far as you can look

During this first bigger swell I surfed Dreamland in the morning with only a few guys out, as the peak season was over and the waves were too big for some others. In the afternoon I usually had a session at Balangan.

Balangan - Sunset lineup

I had great waves at both spots but also 2 heavy wipeouts. At Dreamland I got the lip of a big set right on my back when I wanted to duck dive it. It smashed on my back so hard that I couldn't breath for a few seconds, which is not too good, when you are gettin the next too waves on your head as well. :-)
At Balangan I surfed at low tide, when the wave gets really sucky over the shallow reef. I stayed too long on the wave, as I thought I just get barreled and thererfore couldn't exit it when it suddenly shut down. I got pinned on the reef, lying there on my back without a chance to come up. But luckily the wave just pressed me on the corals and didn't drag me over the reef. Thanks to the neoprene top Andreas from Sweden hand me in Sumbawa I didn't even have a single scratch... :-)

Left & Right: Balangan - A beautiful spot
Looking small from the beach but it was quite heavy and freakin fast...
Dreamland: Golden Sunset Surf

Apart from surfing I stayed again in Ricky's Warung at Dreamland. It was a great time again and as it was off peak season, there were only few tourists on the beach during the day, which made it even better.

Sunset view from my hut on Dreamland. In the distance you can see the lights of the fishing boats.

However, shockin news to everybody who has been there already: This place is NOT goin to be the same when you return there! They just started the construction works again, that they had stopped for 8 years! There are already big illuminated signs on the top of the cliff which state: "NEW KUTA BEACH aka. Dreamland"... The owners of the accomodation on the beach just received letters that they have to leave it as soon as the huge hotel-complex will be finished and opened! It's a shame and I hope they get the works stopped again. :-(

To come back to my trip. During the time on Dreamland I drove with my bike every night to a strip of small warungs, which opened after sunset at the side of the road to Uluwatu, to have dinner. Super good local food! As cheap as it gets and as a dessert a kind of pancake, called 'Bulan' (transl.: moon), that I got addicted to! :-)

Small Warungs on Jl. Uluwatu - Only open after sunset

Left: The guy who made me addicted to 'Keragan Bulan'
(the 1st part of my Bulan is lying in the left corner of the window)
Right: Cookin my daily dinner

Left: Me in front of the food stalls
Right: CapCay, Nasi, Fuyung Hay

Me eatin with the locals

On 26th September my good friend from Sumbawa, Joost, returned with his mate Carlos to Bali. We caught up in Kuta to surf Kuta reef and then moved together down to Bingin, which is the next spot from Dreamland on the way to Uluwatu. We stayed there for 3 days in a beach hut and surfed the next swell, again a 6-8 ft one.

Bingin: Rare view - an empty barrel - machine like perfectionBingin: Surfer in barrel

As Bingin and it's perfect machine-like barrels, was most of the time too freakin crowded we surfed Dreamland a lot. On the last and biggest day, there were only us 3 and 3 other guys in the line-up... One of the best sessions I've ever had there. Without talkin it big, I was surprised how I dropped some of the big waves there. Before that trip I never thought I might surf on a swell like this. :-)

Impossibles: As you can see it from the window at the Bingin beach hut.

On 1st October Joost and Carlos left Indonesia and the next swell was supposed to hit the coast. Not just any swell, the BIGGEST swell of the last few month. A 10-12ft swell (!!!). Many surfers were desperately waiting for this swell to come, to surf Ulu's and Padang Padang in epic conditions. I was certainly more worried about it, as I wanted to surf waves instead of watchin them on my last 3 days. I thought about spots that I was capable to surf with a swell like this... I was on the limit at Dreamland with the 6-8ft swell. I'm still too scared to surf it any bigger. Only the mellow Medewi wave sprung into my mind. But would it hold that much swell? I decided to check it out and packed up my bike at 3am in the night, to drive all the way to Medewi.

Me on my packed bike... :-)

This time I really enjoyed the long ride, although I was packed to the max with 2 boards, a huge backpack and my small backpack! Hardly able to get my left foot on the ground when I had to stop the bike, I drove into a beautifull sunrise and passed some exceptionally beautiful riceterasses. Here are some impressions of my drive...

Left: Sunrise in the mirror
Right: Same sunrise when you turn your head

Rice terasses: The same spot if you look to the front and not in the mirror... :-)

More rice terasses

It's Mango season now... F§%k yeah!!!

Looks beautiful, hmm? In the afternoon the traffic on this road is crazy...

Ok, you are right if you look to the side, it's still beautiful...

Left: I'm not the only one who rides his bike packed to the max.
Right: School bus?

I arrived in Medewi at 6.30am and didn't wait a minute to jump into the water... After the first wave, a wave that I could ride for about 500m all the way to the beach, I realized that, to come here, was the best decicion ever on this trip!

On this 1st day I surfed about 2 hours in the morning and 3 hours around noon. Super nice waves, totally different from the last time when I was at Medewi. This time they were double overhead instead of max. head high. Take offs were still super easy, as the wave was not that steep, followed by long open faces, that you could cruise on all the way to the beach. I surfed my little TwinFin and loved it.

Medewi: Pumpin... Longest left wave in Bali... Now I understand why...

As I was surfin till the wind came up the pics of the waves are not showin it as perfect as it was when glassy...

The rest of the day I didn't stop eating the delicious food of 'Homestay Gede' and had countless fruit juices... I can still feel how satisfied I was that night, when I went to bed! Everything was perfect!

Chillin with a fresh Mango Juice,
letting the waves of the day pass again in your mind,
in the sunset, with the view on the point - That's Medewi.

The next 2 days however, topped everything again! The swell hit the coast and the sets rolled in. I surfed about 4-5 hours without a break on both days. On the first day I only took a break to change my TwinFin against my 6'4'' in the middle of the session because the waves were gettin too steep and big for the small board. Again, I don't wanna talk it big, but on these 2 days I surfed some of the biggest waves of my life! They were not as steep as other waves of smaller size, on the reef, but they were huge as hell! As the break is also not dangerous, as the waves break in deep water, I wasn't scared of anything. I was just sitting far out on the inside (ALONE or if he was out with only 1 Aussie), waiting for the biggest sets. The take off on the outside was followed by a long fast wall, then a fast closing section and if u made the section you had the longest waves I've ever surfed from where the second or main take off spot was. From there the wave also got mellower, without any more sections and you could cruise and cutback all the way to the beach before you had to go for the monster paddle out again! Only minus was the freakin strong current, although it was a good work out! Now I feel really fit... :-)

Left: This inside was the last time too small to take off...
This time about double over head...
Right: The exit to the beach... Last time about 30-50cm...

Medewi was just the best end of my trip I could imagine. Big waves and the longest rides of my life but without any dangers, so that you could just go for it, without havin heavy wipe outs or hold downs like on reef. Perfect... Uhmm, and did I mention that I love my 5'10'' Twinny? Even in these huge conditions it still went great...

A beautiful last sunset in Medewi... These 3 days where golden!

I guess I never scored better surf within a couple of weeks in so many different spots in my life before!
I'm super stoked about my last days surfin in Indo! It was magic!

I returned to Kuta on the 3rd in the evening, had one last dinner at my night food stall on Jl. Uluwatu and a few more Avocado and Mango Juices, before I flew out to Jakarta on the 4th.

Left: Jalan Jaksa
Right: Jakarta traffic with all kinds of vehicles...

I spent one night and almost one day in the city smog and flew out on the 5th to Germany!
So, by the time you read this I'll already be back home... plannin the next trip... :-)

To sum up the trip:
It was a great trip! I met many nice people, saw so many great things, had super nice and unforgetable experiences, the best surf of my life, great food, learned enough Indonesian to communicate and hmm... lets just say it like this: I'll go back for sure, although it's definately not a place where I could live forever!

'ma kasih banyak Indonesia for the great time!

Selamat tingal,
Sebastian

PS: Thanks to all of yous for followin my trip online! It was great to get so many emails and I'm super happy that so many of you like my website and the pictures! As so many of you asked with what kind of Camera I shoot: It's a Canon Ixus V3 model from 2001... nothing special! AND: After 10 days in Indonesia my display stopped workin! From that day on I did all the settings by heart! Long time exposure, shutter speed, etc... And I never saw my pics until I went to an internet cafe... Therefore many pics I was lookin forward to see didn't turn out or were blury, on the other hand others, I never thought would be good, turned out great... considering this, it makes me even more happy when I hear that you like my work! haha... :-)

Dreamland this morning...

2006-09-23T08:24:00.000+02:00

Dreamland Beach Peak pumping this morning

After havin one of my best surfs on my little TwinFin at quite small Balangan yesterday, a new big swell hit Bali today... It was huge and clean in the morning, but unfortunately blown out by the strong winds this afternoon... But it's goin to stay big for the next week, so I hope to score a few good ones the following days!
For now, Seb*

Following The Rising Sun Further East...

2006-09-19T05:47:00.000+02:00

It's been a freakin long time since my last post, not cause I've been lazy, I just didn't get the chance to jump on the net since I left Bali on the 28th August!
Before I left Bali I did one last daytrip on my motorbike to Ubud, which is famous for it's rice terrasses.

Rice Terrasses in Ubud

On my way there I got stopped by the cops again.This time for goin over a red light (there hasn't been a red light in ages...); I bargained hard and ended up with $15 instead of $40 fine, but still pissed with the deal. I was looking forward to leave Bali to head further east. As I didn't want to leave with empty hands, I bought the board on my last day, that I've dreamed of for a while, a 5'10'' TwinFin shaped by RUSTY in almost new condition. :-)

My new Rusty 5'10'' TwinFin

I left on a ferry to Lombok where my first destination was the small island 'Gili Air' in the north. No cars, no roads, no police. Nothing but white sand, palmtrees, corals and water! The island is super small, you can walk around it in about an hour.

Gili Air beachview

Football tournament; Kids wearin huge shirts and saris below... super nice!

I was lucky to see the little local kids compete in a football tournament against other teams from Bali and Lombok.

My typicall fish dinner

Apart from that I just chilled out, ate fresh fish, drank fresh juices and made up plans for my next weeks.
I ended up with plan 'A' to 'D' and after sleepin over it for 2 nights I finally decided to chase plan 'B'.
Plan 'B' icluded to skip Lombok and go straight to Sumbawa, where I was hoping to find less tourists and even better waves than in the south of Lombok...

Left: My Bus (the packed one in the middle)
Right: Fruit stall at Mataram bus station, I ate Salaks all day, a fruit we don't have in Europe! :-)

After 16 hours on a local public bus and 4 hours on ferry I finally arrived in the middle of the night, at 3am, in Dompu in the middle of Sumbawa. I slept in the worst hole I ever had in my life, a run down 'hotel', and paid the most I've ever paid for a night in Indo and therefore could't wait to get out of town again and head south to the coast. It's quite a mission to do the trip via public transport, as nobody gives you information, cause the so called 'bemo-mafia' controles the city.

Hu'u village, local fisherman's houses

Left: In the bus to Hu'u squeezed with 20 fisherman's wifes and their 20 buckets of fresh fish
Right: A ride on a 'ojek', the motorbike taxis

They want you to take a 'minibus' for $40 instead of public transport for $3. After 2 hours in a mini public bus, 3 motorbike trips of about 20min each and a short ride in a horsecar, always carrying my boardbag with 2 boards and my cloth in it with me, I finally arrived in Hu'u a small but among surfers well known fishing village, famous because of its good surfing breaks around Lakey.

Lakey Peak and the old judging tower; view from the beach

After I moved into my little bamboo cottage I stumbled over a dutch guy, Joost, who seemed to be, altough dutch, a pretty nice guy. :-) He introduced me to all the breaks and shared his knowledge about this place with me. He has been there for his 4th time so he knew what he was talkin about!

Lakey Peak pumpin; view from Franky's porch... the best view in the village!

After a couple of days I felt at home and we had our little crew also including Andreas from Sweden and Franky from the US. Uhm, and plenty of monkeys around our cottages. :-)

Left: Me in my room
Right: Joost and Andreas on the porch of Joost cottage.

Left: Gecko in my room
Right: Monkeys behind the cottages
Local kid climbin on a freakin high palmtree to get a coconut...

...His brother busy with a coconut

To the surf: To be honest, on the first day I didn't take-off in a single wave! It was about double to tripple overhead and the steep take-off scared the sh%t out of me! I was also freakin scared to surf these waves at the low tide that we had in the first few mornings, as the waves where breakin on quite shallow reef. I even played with the thought of leavin early, before Joost convinced me to simple go for it without to much thinkin. :-) I did it and I realized that I could take the drops without problems and apart from my heart which was always doubling its beatfrequence I started to have a great time there, surfin some of the biggest waves, takin some of the biggest drops and improvin my surfin almost daily. The waves where pumpin for about a week and it got never crowded, so we had many great sessions! When it started to get smaller (still overhead) I started to surf my new TwinFin! I love this board, it goes super well and turns incredibly. :-)

No man's land... mostly unsurfed, except when Shane Dorian is in Lakey! :-)Surfer at pumpin' Lakey Peak

Top: Gettin a barrel at the peak
Bottom: Empty thick lipped barrel at the peak
The view from Nungas! My favourite view: The few palmtrees, the mountains in the background... I loved it!

Top: Joost and Andreas gettin out of the water
Bottom: The steps in the reef and Nungas firing in the back... beautiful!

The peak was eating boards EVERYDAY! Sometimes up to 5 per day...

As the wind kicked in at around 11am, you couldn't surf in the afternoon. We often used that time to go for walks in the area or simply chill out. In the evening we always had fresh fish! I had fresh fish in all variations for about 20 days in a row since I left Bali except for my last days! Hahaha...

Local fisherman showin what he caught in the morning

...and showing that there are sharks out there... hmmm?! :-)

Local kids frying their freshly caught fish on a little fire on the beach

Left: Blown out Nungas in the afternoon
Right: Locals pickin something eatable on the reef at lowtide

Fishing boat under a tree on the beach at Lakey

I also got invited to a local wedding in Dompu by one of the Lakey locals. It was a great experience although I wish I never had to dance by myself infront of 300 people just because I was the only white. Yeah, I had to laugh at myself... and these guys were as well. :-)

Broom and Bride

Me dancin infront of 300 wedding guests... ahhhhhhh! Feel free to laugh! :-)

Top: I had to pose with the locals on the wedding for 1000s of photos
Bottom: They went crazy went they saw my camera... haha!Sunset at Lakey

After about 10 awesome days in Lakey I continued my endless bus Odysee east. After 12hours on bus and 9 hours on ferry I arrived in Flores. I stayed in Labuan Bajo, the harbour city, for one night and decided to take one day off on a very small island, 1 hour by boat from Bajo, 'Seraya'.

Labuan Bajo, the small harbour village of Flores

Seraya Island was a dream! I was the ONLY one stayin on the island except for 2 local women who cooked for me and the 2 locals who took me there on the boat! I guess the pictures speak for themself, a beautifull little piece of paradise, where you can forget about everything and just relax!

Seraya Island: The Beach and small huts from the hill in the West of the island - a little piece of paradise!

Left: My beachhut
Right: Seraya seen from the boatLonely tree on Seraya Island

Top: Sunrise
Bottom: Sunset
(both seen from the hill in the West)

I snorkeled, read, explored the island and had some of the BEST fish ever, served on hot plates! After a beautiful sunset and an even more beautiful sunrise I took a boat back and jumped with new energy on a bus to continue my trip.

Colorful underwater paradise just of the beach...

Left and Right: Clown Fish... I found 'Nemo' again...

I sat on the bus for 2 full days, just spending one night in between in Ruteng, before I arrived in Ende. Each bus broke down twice and the bemo to my hotel in Ende run out of petrol... hahaha :-) It was quite funny though, always a welcome break to catch some fresh air... Fresh air was e.g. needed after a local woman vomitted on the bus because she got sick by the never ending turns and bumby roads. The only one who welcomed that was the fighting cock tighed to the bottom of her seat who was quite thankful for the snack! ;-)

Left: First bus... defect engine :-)
Right: Second bus... broken tyre and loosing oil!

Local Bus - pretty packed, hmm!

'Ende' is the German word for 'end', therefore I made it to my final destination before the return to Bali. However, I first wanted to see the famous volcano crater lakes of Kilimutu and I had to complete a mission...

I went another 50k's east, this time not in, but on top of the bus, to a sleepy little village called 'Moni'. The bus didn't break down this time, but as there was an earthslide we anyway had to wait for an hour... :-)

On the roof of the bus on the trip to 'Moni'

Left: view on the roads from the top of the bus
Right: Probably a church under construction on the side of the roadRice paddies in the valley on the trip to 'Moni'

My good friend David from Germany, stayed in Moni at the foot of Kelimutu Volcano for a week in February and loved it, he kept on talkin about it and gave me many pictures that I had to deliver to the family, where he stayed, and some local kids that he met.

The view from Tobias' 'Bintang-Guesthouse'

The family was almost cryin because they where so happy to get the pictures and to hear from David. I was immediately intgrated into their days, what made it an unforgetable time up there. Terima kasih banyak David for sending me there!

Happy faces... the kids enjoyin the pics I delivered for David! You made them really, really happy dude!

Putri helpin to prepare the Chicken BBQ

Left: Chicken with kids
Right: Little Puppy... Anne I guess you like that picture! :-)The family and me huggin the chicken one last time before the BBQ
Oh, oh, my mum doesn't find that too funny... :-)

Left: Nona with her brother
Right: Tobias

Left: Ibu washin cloth
Right: Kid carryin water

Left: Rice paddies in Moni
Right: Village centre of Moni and 2 kids carryin water together
The Family: Tobias with Putri and Denti with Putra

Tobias drove me on his motorbike up to the Volcano at 4am and I experienced another stunning sunrise and bewondered the 3 colored crater lakes that have totally changed there colors over the last 40 years.

Sunrise on Kilimutu volcanoMe infront of the green crater lake of Kilimutu. In the 70's it was dark blue.

I stayed in Moni for 3 days before I headed back to Ende, from where I took a flight back to Bali yesterday.

My Merpati airplane

The End of my trip East! 53k's from 'Ende'

As you can read and see, I had a wonderfull time within the last three weeks! I have seen a lot, surfed a lot and also spent a lot of time sitting in and on buses to get to all those beautiful places! This might be my last big update of the trip now, although I have another 18 days left in Indo! I will spend these days just surfing and chilling out... recharging my batteries for Germany and formatting my mind. Anyway, I'll keep you up to date!

Selamat jalan dan Terima kasih banyak!
For now,

Sebastian

I want to finish with this cute picture of Putri havin her breakfast...

Putri

11 days in Bali...

2006-08-18T12:07:00.000+02:00

Medewi - Sunrise

Selamat siang!

It's been 11 days since my last update. I've experienced a lot during this short time. Many great experiences, crazy adventueres and a few freakin crazy things, that I don't want to mention in here... :-)

Bali...
When I left Kuta about 10 days ago on my 125cc Motorbike, I headed south to a beach called 'Dreamland'! It was actually 'DREAMLAND'. The surrounding surfbreaks some of the best in the world, Uluwatu (which was still way too big for now), Bingin, Impossibles, Balangan and Dreamland itself, what do you need more?

Balangan - barrelin over the reef - usually not very crowded... any questions?

Most of the time I surfed Balangan, a beautiful barrelin reefbreak, which actually never got really crowded. I just had to paddel 500m around the corner of the cliff from my small beach hut to get there. The surf was awesome, already on my first day I scored some barrels. :-)
A short ride on the motorbike or a short walk at low tide away were Impossibles and Bingin. Both breakin over shallow razorsharp corals and for me quite challengin waves. I haven't surfed Bingin yet.

Impossibles firing over shallow, sharp corals...

very sharp corals... Joe got badly cut at Impossibles...

I stayed in a small beach hut without electricity built into the rocks of the cliff at Dreamland Beach. The family I stayed with was super nice and my room was the only one they have for rent. I really loved this place! It was awesome to fall asleep with the sound of the waves at night and get up in the morning, when you just have to open the door to be in paradise. However, during the day Dreamland Beach got freakin crowded by daytourists, which was the only thing that disturbed the harmony of this place. Followin are a few impressions...

left: my hut at 'Dreamland' - Ricky's Warung
right: view on a flat morning out of my door, the other breaks where still on!

Made (youngest daughter of the owner) - in the kitchen

left: the family
middle: Mum Made and Made (Made is the name for every second born in Bali)
right: Made after shower

Made playin and singin in the morning in a basket

sunset from my room on 'Dreamland'

On Tuesday this week I left Dreamland early in the morning to head west to Medewi, where I caught up with a mate and his girlfriend from Germany. It was a freakin crazy 4 1/2 hour drive on my motorbike, although really beautifull as well, as the scenery was stunning and the sunrise awesome.
Medewi is a very small village and there is not much to see, except for the famous mellow left hand pointbreak - a reversed Malibu.

Medewi - A mellow lefthand pointbreak

I always got up at 5.45am to be the first out in the water and because the waves where much better in early before the tradewinds started around noon.

Medewi - fishing boats in the misty sunrise

I stayed in a small homestay, which was one of the cheapest places in Bali so far. The rooms where without a doubt the best I've had so far, the owners super friendly and the food was incredibly delicious and super cheap. Following to that I got up surfed, ate, surfed, ate, chilled, ate, chilled, ate, had a Tim Tam Tea Time and went to bed... haha... simple but great!

My dinner at Medewi - delicious fresh fish, Nasi Putih and a cold Bintang...

Hell yeah!!! They got TimTams over here...
These pics go out to all of my friends from Oz, that celebrated TTTTs with me Down Under, I miss it!
If you look really close at the second pic you can even read the TTTT instructions in Bahasa Indonesia! :-)

Thanks to Nadine, Manu's girlfriend, who was takin pictures of us the whole time when we were surfin, I can now finally send you a picture of me in action. I still hope to get some great shots on the reef , but for now I have to sarisfy you with this one, surfin mellow little Medewi, that was still lots of fun...

Me - Bottom turn at Medewi Point

On Thursday night I headed already back to Kuta, to join the big 'Good Bye Sweden' party. On my way I visited 'Tanah Lot' the most important Balinese sea temple. I've seen more impressive things on my trip so far... quite touristy...

Me on my motorbike drivin 4 hours back to Kuta

Yesterday the 'Nice group' from Sweden left back home and Manu and Nadine arrived from Medewi to spend there last 2 days on Bali here in Kuta. Last night we drove to the Uluwatu Temple for the sunset and I actually caught up with some old mates, Monkeys... ;-)

Uluwatu - Monkey biting my shoulder

left: Monkey pullin on my sarong
right: Monkey pullin my hair

Monkey mum protecting her baby

Monkeys enjoying the beautiful sunset at the Uluwatu Temple

So as you might guess right: I'm great!!! I love it!
Indonesia is an amazing country that has so much to offer and explore. I love bargainin, the way locals deal with all kind of stuff, the scenery, the sun, the surf and the way you can bribe the cops... Funny story: I didn't want to spend money on an Indo driver's licence so I payed the cops to write me a stolen certificate for it... When I got stopped about a week ago, the cop was smilin at it, so I bribed him with a Bintang Beer to let me get away with it... That's the way! :-)

I'm leavin for Lombok in about 2 days to start my adventure trip further east towards Flores over the less touristy and more secluded island Sumbawa, Sumba and maybe Komodo and Rinca...

I want to end this post with the beautiful sunset at Uluwat last night!

All the best from Indonesia to all of yous wherever you are in the world right now!
For now, Sebastian

Uluwatu Temple - Sunset

From Yogyakarta to Cemoro Lewang to Bali

2006-08-15T16:45:00.000+02:00

Sunrise above the clouds with Gunung Semeru smokin in the background

Selamat Malam...
I just arrived in Bali yesterday at around midnight.
I left Yogyakarta 3 days ago with a bus to Cemoro Lewang which is a small village at the edge of a volcano valley, that also includes Gudung Bromo.
There I went to see the sunrise above the morning clouds, which was an incredible stunning expierience. You could see the smokin volcano Semeru (Java's highest peak) in the background it was just beautiful!
If there would have been no clouds you would also see Bromo and the other 4 craters from that viewpoint.
I also climbed Bromo, and saw the sulfid steam comin out of the bottom of the crater. I actually never imagined a volcano like this, it just looks like you are walkin on the moon. Crazy!

Left: Bromo's crater with the rising Sulfi
Right: a view from my hotel over smoking Bromo and the crater landscape with a small temple in front of Bromo

After breakfast I took a bus to leave Java behind me! After an endless drive I finally arrived last night in Den Pasar (Bali) around midnight.
I took a cab to Kuta, where I've got to organize a few things for my next few weeks... Get a motorcycle, a drivers licence, etc... Kuta itself is quite touristy. You could say it's the "Ballermann" for Australians.
So obviously I had to party last night... :-) I went out with 4 Swedish beauties and a Belgium guy that I met on my trip from Yogya... It was super funny! Anyway, I wanna get out of Kuta as soon as possible to see more of Bali, avoid the crowds of tourists and obviously surf the numerous breaks that Bali has to offer...

Today I was welcomed with a new swell! I only surfed Kuta beach so far, but it was still super cool! I'm so glad to be in the water again... Uhm, and to all of yous that've been to France with me waiting for waves... This was what it should look like!

Kuta Beach: Today, clean lines of way over head high waves... Any questions?

I wanna end with some more impressions of Java... To give you a better idea what life looks like over there!

Yogyakarta - local houses

Left: Go!!! Starting traffic at an intersection
Middle: schoolkids in a becak
Right: Javanese woman selling here food which tasted awesome, although I got no idea what it actually was! :-)

Sigid, a local of Yogya and me havin a chat and some tea at a warung on the side of the road

That's it for now! I'm goin to have a couple of Bin Tang birs now, before I go to crash in my hotel... Gotta get up for an early morning session and get my motorbike...

Catch yas,
Seb

PS... hahaha... and that how Javanese showers look like... of course cold... :-)

Shower in my Hotel in Yogya

Yogyakarta...

2006-08-11T14:37:00.000+02:00

Candi Borobudur's stupas and uncovered buddha in a mystic misty sunrise

Selamat malam!
The last few days have been pretty crazy, adventureous, interresting, etc. whatever one might call it!

I left Jakarta by train for Yogyakarta. If Jakarta is the business city of Java, Yogya is the city of arts and culture. Unlike Jakarta, Yogya is much cleaner, smells less poluted, is less hectic and definately not as busy. When I arrived I immediately found Hotel Karunia, the place my friend David has recommended to me!

The main backpacker street 'Jalan Sosrowijayana' (crazy to pronounce) is connected to the other streets by a labyrinth of so called 'Gangs'. A huge number of small side streets with a friendly flair but also mirroring the living conditions of the locals.

Jalan Sosrowijayana & Gang 1

The owner of my hostel showed me around the first night and introduced me to a lot of locals. When walkin through the 'gangs' today, everybody, even people I've never seen before welcome me with "Halo Sebastian, apa kabar-how are you?"...
Pretty crazy, ey, but it makes u feel safe and accepted, too!

Candi Prambanan and Candi Borobudur
(follow the links for information on the temples)

Yesterday I actually started the first real adventure of my trip! Nothin too special, I just caught a public bus to a place somewhere in the middle of the city. From there I had to jump (literally 'jump', as you wave and jump on the public buses while it keeps on drivin...) on another so called 'minibus' to Prambanan where the old Prambanan Temple (candi-temple) lies. A minibus is a 'vehicle', that looks like my Aussie kombi 'hank', just about 100 years older, without most of the windows and without anything workin but the engine and holes everywhere... ;-)

I visited the great temple site, had dinner somewhere on the street and travelled the same way back. The only difference was that I had to get another 'minibus' from another unknown corner in Yogya to Borobudur... Actually, this minibus NEVER arrived... As nowbody could help me in English in that part of the city, I had to use my little Indonesian. Eventually I found myself sitting in another bus, not to Borobudur, but at least to a small village 15km's before of Borobudur. I arrived there when it was already dark and found myself in another critical situation: No minibus, taksi or anything to Borobudur!? I tried to explain the locals of the village my situation successfully and one of them took me on the back of his motorcycle directly in front of the door of the 'losmen' I have chosen. :-)

This morning I got up at 5 am and went for a stroll around the small village of Borobudur.

Borobudur village at 5.30 am

Afterwards I visited Candi Borobudur at dawn. It's one of the biggest buddhist temples in South East Asia. It is estimated that it was built in 750-850 AD. It is also estimated that it was built as a large walk through mandala, as it looks as such seen from the air. For more information read here. The temple is super impressive! I almost spent 5 hours to explore it.

Borobudur in misty sunrise

In the early afternoon I went back by becak (tuktuk), public buses, minibuses etc... I felt way more confident than the day before and I also had for the first time a real conversation in the bus! I finally managed to understand questions they asked me and to answer them! The people are just great and super friendly...

Of course the buses have no radio, but from time to time some locals jump on the bus to sing a song and collect some small change...

Now I'm back in Yogya. It took me ages to upload all this... I guess now I deserve a 'Bintang bir'! Tomorrow I'll go to Merapi! Again by public transport... The adventure continues...

Take care,
Seb

PS. I only took pictures of Indonesians when I could ask for them if it would be alright for them. In many of the small 'gangs' there's a lot more family life goin on, but I don't feel comfortable yet to capture this on camera, as I don't know how the locals feel about it.

Selamat datang di Indonesia!

2006-08-08T16:16:00.000+02:00

Jakarta streetlife

Apa kabar! Baik-baik kabar! (how s it goin? I'm good!)

Finally, I arrived in Jakarta (Java) last night! I made my way to the city with a few indonesian phrases via public transport and walked for another hour to get to Jalan Jaksa (Jaksa st.), where most of the cheap losmen are. I found a pretty basic one for 1,5 Euro a night. ;-)
Before I went to sleep I had a couple of BinTang Beers together with some Locals, 3 European girls and a dutchi. Actually I saw almost no backpackers here...

Today I started to have a look around the city for the first time...
To discribe Jakarta in one word: CRAZY! :-)
I love it! When walkin around I already got in touch with many nice locals... Super friendly people! My Indonesian is still in the beginnin. I can say and ask the most important basics... However, the biggest problem is to understand the answers, e.g. when askin for the way. But most of them speak some English as well, so I never got lost. Actually, I guess I'm drawin a lot of attention as a european... However, the funniest thing is, that people over here as well start to compare me with Curt Cobain... (as in Australia... haha)

Tomorrow I'll already leave by train for Yogyakarta, which is supposed to be a beautiful city with lot's of sights around... Temples (Borobudur), volcanos (Merapi), etc... Unfortunately, it was hit by the Tsunami just a month ago so I actually don't know what's goin to await me there...

I'll keep u updated, just wanted to let u know I'm great and well off!

Selamat jalan,
Sebastian

The Final Countdown...

2006-07-30T15:00:00.000+02:00

Ben surfin in Bali in August 2005

It's Saturday, 13.30 pm, I'm sitting in my room, writing a 20 pages paper about overweight and adiposity for one of my Sports major courses... As soon as I finish this one, which should be today, I gotta start another 20 pages on ethics ideas in Psychology... Not to mention my 5 practical plus two theoretical sports exams next week!
However, my thoughts are already somewhere else... I'm already countin down the days! Only one more week and I'm off to Indonesia for 60 days...

This blogg goin to awake now! I'll try to update it in Indo as often as possible!

I'm already so excited, which adventures are goin to await me there...

I wish u guys, no matter in which part of the world u are, all the best!

For now,
Sebastian

France 2006 - Hossegor

2006-07-29T13:32:00.000+02:00

Me recently enjoyin a sunset in France (June 2006)

In hope to catch some good waves I went to Hossegor in France in the end of may. I actually only had one good day in 17 days... On the third day the ocean went flat like a lake! :-)
However, the weather was great and I met many nice people, so I anyway had a great time there!

Indo I'm comin...
Sebastian

Australian Impressions

2006-05-22T22:52:00.000+02:00

These are only a few impressions of my year in Australia 2004/05!
It was for sure the best year of my life so far! Pictures can't capture emotions, but for me each and every single pic brings back great memories and tells its own story.
My great 1973 kombi took me all around Australia. It kept on rockin in the free world for over 40000 km's without makin any trouble at all! Without "Hank aka the orange beastie" it would've never been the same. It was by far more than a van, it was a dream!
I was livin the simplest live: Havin cold showers on the beach, cookin seasonal food, surfin whenever I had the chance and chillin with people I loved... you don't need much to be happy! I met so many great people, amongst them Hale and Ben, who will always stay two of my best friends!
This post is dedicated to everybody who made this epic adventure to what it was!

Big smile,
Seb*

Watching the waves at Byron Bay's secret "Shark Beach"

Byron Bay - my surfing mates & best friends (Hale, me and Ben)

Lookin forward to catch up with u guys in Marrocco this winter...

Ben - duckdive

Me jumpin of the point at Noosa's Tea Tree Bay

Burleigh Heads (QLD) - Pumpin
One of our "Local Spots"

Takin off at the point at world famous Snapper Rocks

Kalbarri (WA) - Jake's Point - A gnarly left point breakin on freakin shallow reef

Kalbarri (WA) - Jakes Point - deep in the barrel

Ben surfin our little Byron Bay homebeachie

Sydney - Opera House

Me somewhere in the outback...

My luxury apartement aka. 'Hank - the orange beastie'
As Ben once said: "It's not a van - it's a DREAM!!"

Tasmania - Bay of Fires

My orange beastie van "Hank" - the best car I've ever had!!!

Tasmania - rainforest

Adelaide - sunset in my first week in Oz

Whitsunday Island - Chillin on the boat

Cheaky Visitor early in the morning in a lonley west coast bay

Clownfish aka Nemo on a dive at the Great Barrier Reef

Green Turtle on a dive at the Great Barrier Reef

Parots somewhere near Pemberton (WA)

Waitpinga Beach - huge Redback Kangaroo

Koala in free nature on Kangaroo Island

My best friend Hale and me on Fraser Island *Can't wait to catch up with u again!*

Me in front of Snapper Rocks - Goldcoast QLD

Devil Marbles - Outback

Me - Bio450°

Kakadu National Park - stunning sunrise

Litchfield National Park - Massive Termite Mount in a full moon night

Kakadu National Park - sunset

Welcome!

2006-05-22T22:15:00.000+02:00

How's it goin out there!

Welcome to my new Blog! As some of you might know, my next big trip is already in the planning... In the beginning of August I'm leavin' to Indonesia to experience another epic surf adventure!
I'm workin on my new website, however there's still a lotta work to do before it's launched... For now this blog is goin to keep you up to date!

Hope y'all enjoy it,
Sebastian

*Surfing the World*