Babsi & Conrad

This year's Christmas greetings come from 'The Pinnacles' desert, a few hours north of Perth, Western Australia.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a good start into the New Year!

Having had a great time in Western Australia we'll be heading over to the East Coast for Christmas and New Year.

Stay tuned

We left the 'fine' city of Singapore not without being punished and arrived in Bali with a bad cold which only got worse in the days to follow.

Singapore is a 'fine' city

Unfortunately what was meant to be a surfing holiday, preparing us for the big swell in the Australian waters, turned out to be rather a recovery stay.
The surf camp we were staying at had a lot to offer: several surf session a day at different spots with varying degrees of difficulties, a perfectly relaxed accommodation 'camp', our private room with outdoor bathroom, Pergola style lounge/restaurant - and all that arranged around a nice little pool in a perfectly landscaped garden.
Well, that was all very different to what we experienced elsewhere so far. But this level of luxury and comfort certainly came with the drawback of getting a little lazy and experiencing less of the 'real' world.

The Green Room Hotel - our surfcamp in Bali

Anyway, it didn't take long for both of us to realise that surfing is not something you learn within days but rather months or even years. After all - perhaps - we are getting older, too.

When we didn't have fever, cold or sore throats we tried to catch as many waves as we can and hence only spent two days exploring the island. We visited a traditional - although touristic - dance performance symbolising the struggle between the good and the bad in Balinese Hinduism. We travelled through terraced rice fields up into the central part of Bali and to the crater of one of the vulcanos.

Tradional Balinese Barong Dance

Saffron at the market in Ubud

On the road in Bali

Balinese temple

Balinese temple

Terraced rice field

Impressive way of picking coconuts

Drying of seaweed for the cosmetics industry

It's BBQ time at the surf camp

Tropical rainfall

Once again the same blossom: we simply love it

Although we promised ourselves when we saw and experienced the traffic that we'd never drive in Bali ourselves, we changed our minds and joined the crowds on our last day on the island. We hired a moped and realised what first appears to be chaotic, dangerous and nerve wracking traffic is actually an amazingly smooth flow of cars, trucks and countless mopeds. We had a great trip with the moped to a few remote places on the Southern peninsular and the day ended with a romantic and delicously fresh fish candle-light dinner on the beach only hours before we boarded the airplane.

This was great fun!

Yeap, we are on holidays!

Local fishing boats

Dinner on the beach

Good-Bye Bali

With our swim wear still being soaking wet from Bali we jumped continents and arrived in Perth in Western Australia in the very early hours of Sunday, 9 December.
We are staying here with our friends Katharina and Wolfgang who moved here from Austria almost two years ago.
They live in a beautiful house with shaded garden only minutes from both, central Perth to the East and the West coast beaches to the West. We are enjoying their welcoming hospitality and wake up every morning with a smile in our faces because this is going to be just another wonderful day.

'City Beach' in Perth with Katharina and Wolfgang

Exploring Perth

We'll head towards the South-Western corner of Australia tomorrow, Wednesday 12 Dec, and spend the weekend with Katharina and Wolfgang in Margaret River.

G'day and stay tuned!